Revenge of the Sir Kibble
by BabyCharmander
Summary: Sir Meta Knight has started Operation Halberd, and is recruiting new members to help him. ...But he's not the only one out for revenge. Revenge of Meta Knight, shown through the eyes of two helpers. Rated K plus for violence and some dark themes.
1. Prologue

Oh boy, it's been a while, hasn't it? Well, hiya folks. BabyCharmander here with yet another _Kirby_ fanfic. Give up? Me? Naw!

Once again, this is another Kirby Super Star story shown from the eyes of two helpers. But if you don't like reading about fancharacters, fear not! This story will also feature the Meta Knights and Halberd crew! It's only fair to give them some spotlight in a Revenge of Meta Knight fanfic.

Do we really need another retelling of RoMK? ...No idea, but I did it anyway!

Anyway, the beta of the fic is 100% complete, but only the first few chapters have been beta'd and edited. Even so, I will be posting one chapter a week, so that should give my beta readers plenty of time to finish looking over the final chapters of the story so I can touch them up before I post them. So yeah, don't fear about another unfinished fanfic sitting around the archive and collecting dust; this fanfic _will_ be finished. Now, onward.

Disclaimer: Revenge of Meta Knight, Kirby Super Star, and all the characters, species, plots, and worlds within belong to Nintendo/Hal. But Cutter, Dagger, Blast, Jolt, and others are my fancharacters. While their species belongs to Nintendo/Hal, I own the characters themselves.

On with the fic!

* * *

><p>Halloween was over, and fall had long since come and gone. Farmers had gathered their crops into their barns to prepare for a lengthy winter; the forests, once beautiful shades of red, orange, and yellow, had lost their leaves and gone dormant; and many animals had dug caves for themselves and gone into hibernation. The once-colorful Dreamland was now shades of grey and blue as snow and ice coated the countryside.<p>

Many Dreamlanders were now either huddled up in their homes to keep warm, or outside dressed in scarves and hats and making snow-Waddle Dees. Others, however… were not doing so well.

"It c-c-c-COLD, C-Cuh'er!" Dagger stammered for the two-hundred-thirty-first (or so) time that day. Despite the fact that he was wrapped up in all his blankets, he was still shivering.

"R-r-rusty s-s-scrapmetal!" Cutter yelled, burying himself further into his own pile of blankets. "I kn-kn-know, D-D-Dagger! It's n-not m-my fault I c-c-can't a-f-f-ford to p-pay the h-heating b-bill this y-year!" The two were sitting on their couch wrapped in every blanket they could find, both trying to keep warm despite the total lack of heat in the house. Between the two on the couch sat a laptop with a half-finished program typed up into it. Cutter _had_ been working on it, but that got to be a bit difficult when he couldn't even feel his paws.

"Whynot?" The Blade Knight glared a little.

"Dedede slashed my pay, _again!_" Cutter sighed, curling up underneath his blanket shelter in an attempt to keep warm. "I g-guess more people are becoming his m-minions… s-so he's just p-paying everyone l-less. So it was either f-freeze, or s-starve. I f-figured freezing would be l-less painful."

"Buh-buh-buh what 'bout… Whispy?"

"He's gone dormant, remember? He goes to sleep in the winter."

"Oh." Dagger blinked. "…Giveapples… when wakeup?" He gave a hopeful smile.

"…He'll wake up in the spring, when we won't need the heat anymore."

"…Oh."

After a moment or two, the Blade Knight stared forlornly at the empty fireplace at the side of the room. "Makefire?"

"I'd like to, but we don't have any firewood." Cutter heaved a sigh. Suddenly he perked up, getting an idea. "Hey, here's something… If _you _go out and get some firewood, _I'll _make the fire! How's that sound, Dag'?"

Dagger brightened up considerably at that. "Yah!" he cheered, grinning and hopping out of his pile of blankets. He rushed over to the closet to put on his jacket and a scarf, and immediately marched out the door, shutting it behind him… and opened it again moments later, rushing back inside.

_That was fast…_ Cutter thought, impressed.

Dagger stood there for a moment or two, kicking his foot a little. "…Cuh'er?"

"Yeah?"

"Whereget… firewood?"

The Kibble about fell over at that; he should've known it wouldn't be that easy. "…You have to chop down a tree and take the wood back here to get it."

"Oh! 'Kay." With renewed cheerfulness, the Blade rushed outside once more… only to come back a few moments later. "…Cuh'er?"

"What is it _now_, Dagger?" Cutter asked, rubbing his face in exasperation.

"How chopdown… tree?"

"…You get something sharp like an axe to cut it down."

"Oh! 'Kay." And once again, Dagger darted out the door. And once again, he rushed back into the house. "…Cuh'er?"

"_WHAT?_"

"Whereget… sharp thing?''

"Well, search me," the Kibble said with a shrug. He then paused, realizing how Dagger was likely to interpret that. "…No wait don't—!" With a yelp, the Kibble was yanked up out of his pile of blankets, and held up in the air by his boomerang-blade.

"Thankyuu!" Dagger exclaimed with a cheerful smile, still holding his friend up in the air.

"…You're welcome." Cutter reached up to the blade and unhooked it from his helmet, allowing himself to drop back down onto his blanket-nest. "Just be sure to bring it back, all right?"

"'Kay." With that, the Blade Knight rushed out of the house for the fourth time, this time staying outside. Once out, he examined the boomerang-blade he'd borrowed. He actually wasn't that great with weapons, but how hard could this be? He glanced around, soon spotting a dead tree not too far from the house. Grinning, he rushed up to it, and hit the trunk with the boomerang-blade. Immediately, all the snow that covered the tree dropped on top of him.

"BUUUUUH!" Dagger blurted out, shaking the snow off of himself and shivering. "ItCOLD!" He kicked at the snow at his feet, then glared at the tree. Well, maybe he'd be able to chop it down this time! Aiming the boomerang-blade again, he smacked it against the tree trunk. This, however, only caused the boomerang-blade to wobble, the tremor going through his arm, then to the rest of his body.

"N-n-n-not w-w-w-w-wuuuurk!" the Blade stammered. Once he stopped shaking, he stomped away from the tree, grumbling. Maybe he could chop another tree down…

Ten failed attempts later, Dagger still had no firewood to bring back to the house. "Whynot wurk?" he whined, looking down at the boomerang-blade in his paw. He blinked, though, when he spotted something odd that was reflected off of the gold-colored metal, and looked behind him.

There, approaching him with a smug look on his face, was Blast the Poppy Bro. Sr, his companion Jolt the Plasma Wisp not far behind. "Heeey there, Dagger," Blast said, smirking at the Blade Knight. "Having trouble getting some firewood?"

"Buuuh!" Dagger shot a glare at the clown, hiding the boomerang-blade behind his back. "Nu! Not!" He really didn't want Blast and Jolt bothering him right now… The last time he'd run into them, they were trying to get him and Cutter in jail, so they probably weren't up to any good right now, either.

"You know... it might help if you stopped using the blunt side of that thing."

"Buh...?" He looked at the weapon again, examining it more closely this time. Sure enough, it was somewhat wider and flat at one side, and sharp on the other side. Blinking, he experimentally swung its sharp side at a small tree nearby, and easily chopped it down. Dagger grinned at that, but then looked back at Blast, giving him a confused look. "...Whyuu help?"

"'Cuz we're your pals, Dagger!" Blast wrapped his arm around Dagger's shoulders, then glanced back at Jolt. "Right?"

The Plasma Wisp shrugged. "I don't know... are we?"

"Of course we are!" Blast said a bit more loudly, turning Dagger away from Jolt. "That's why we're going to help you, again!"

"...Reelee?" Dagger asked, eyes widening a fraction.

"Yup! I have a..." He glanced to one side, then the other, before looking back at Dagger and grinning. "…secret."

"Wut see'kr't?"

"This!" With that, he pulled a sheet of paper out of his patch-ridden coat, and handed it to Dagger. "This here will solve all your problems. With the money from this job, you'll be able to afford to pay the heat bills at your house, and maybe you won't have to resort to stealing food again!"

"...But..." The Blade Knight blinked. "Didn'tstea—"

"Whatever. Just take that over to Cutter and have him read over it. He'll take it from there. And uh... don't mention that I was the one to give this to ya."

"...'Kay." With that, Dagger collected the fallen tree and made his way back to his and Cutter's house, leaving Blast and Jolt behind.

Once the Blade Knight was out of earshot, Jolt turned to his partner. "Zo… remind me why'zzz it we're helping him, zzzz…?"

"Do you remember what that job advertisement was?"

"...No?"

"It's from those people that're running Project Halberd." Blast's trademark toothy grin quickly returned to his face. "Hehehehe, if Cutter and Dagger wind up in THAT mess, they'll be ruined for sure!"

Meanwhile, Dagger returned home with the tree, which Cutter began slicing up to make firewood. "Sure took you a long time to get this..." the Kibble said. "What took you?"

"Um... nuthin'," Dagger replied, glancing at the paper in his hand.

"Well, c'mon then, help me load this into the fireplace."

With that, the two took some of the small logs that Cutter had just finished chopping up and carried them over to the fireplace. It didn't take long for them to make a fire, and both of them were soon warming themselves by it.

"Not as good as heating for the whole house... but still not too bad," Cutter said, smiling a little. "Thanks for getting the firewood, Dag'!"

"Uh... yuuwel'k'm." He looked down at the paper again. "...Cuh'er... noget paid... lots?"

"Huh?" The Kibble gave Dagger a funny look. "Yeah, I mentioned that earlier. That's why we can't afford heating in the house. Why do you ask?"

"Maybeget... 'nother job?"

"Another job? Dagger, where in rusty scrapmetal are we gonna get that?" He blinked when Dagger suddenly handed him a sheet of paper. "...What's this?"

Reading over it, it appeared to be some sort of job advertisement, but not one that he would see posted just anywhere. Something was different about it... but the Sir Kibble wasn't exactly sure just what it was. In any case, one of the things the advertisement listed as something these people needed help with was programming, which was one of the things Cutter did in his spare time.

The Kibble thought for a bit about this. _Well... it's gotta be better than just being one of Dedede's lackeys... maybe I should give this a shot._ He glanced up at Dagger. "Don't know where you found this, but... well... I wouldn't mind having a better job than my current one." He smiled a bit. "Hand me the phone; I'll call 'em up."

* * *

><p>Cutter still remembered his interview with King Dedede, and it was absolutely nothing like this. He and Dagger were in a cold, dark room in what had turned out to be a hidden underground… place. The only thing remotely similar here was the fact that he was being interviewed by a giant bird. This time it looked like some kind of hawk, though, not a penguin.<p>

"So..." the bird began, looking over something on a clip-board, "your name is Cutter, correct?"

"Y-yes sir."

"And your previous employment was with King Dedede?"

"Um... well, I-I haven't exactly quit the job yet..."

The bird's eyes narrowed a little.

"I-I mean! Um... I'll p-probably—er, I _will_ quit that job if I'm hired here... o-of course." Cutter mentally smacked himself in the face, wishing he could remember some of the stuff he'd looked up about interviews.

"You didn't exactly specify what you did for Dedede."

"...Nothing much, really. I, uh, had to wander around Whispy Woods every day and be on the lookout for Kirby, and attack him if I ever saw him." He sighed a little. "Dedede's not really the best guy to work for, though."

"...Ah," the bird said, and Cutter wondered if that was a good "ah" or a bad "ah." "The job you're applying for is quite different from your previous one."

"Yeah! I-it is. It... it said in that job advertisement that you guys needed help with programming stuff, right? Never done it for a job, but... I've gotten really good with stuff involving computers and all that, programming included."

"Have you ever programmed AI?"

"AI?"

"Artificial intelligence. Robots."

"Um... I've done a little, but not a lot. I've read a lot about it though! I guess I could give it a shot."

"...Well, in case you're worthless in that respect, we could always use general lackeys in case we run into trouble," the bird muttered. "What about your friend there?"

"Uh... Dagger?" Cutter looked over at the Blade Knight, blinking. "He's not really here to interview for a job..."

"What was his previous employment?"

"He... never worked before. He _is_ good at fighting, though, I guess."

"Yah!" Dagger grinned at that, nodding. "Istrong!"

"Well, fine, like I said, general lackeys," the bird said.

"Wait, you mean you'd consider him for a position, too?" Cutter asked, surprised.

"Perhaps." The bird folded his wings. "It depends."

"Depends on what? Um... Dagger really _is_ strong! He's saved my life bef—"

"That's not what I'm talking about." The hawk walked up closer to Cutter, and bent down so he was looking him directly in the eye. "This is serious business we're talking about here, not some burger-flipping job. Kid, do you even know what Project Halberd is?"

"Um..." Cutter blushed a little, realizing that no, he actually had no idea what this was all about. "I-I guess... um... I d-don't..."

"We're going to be making some changes around Dreamland... for the better, of course." A strange smile came across the bird's beak as he straightened up again. "There'll be no more overweight penguins ruling this place by the time we're through."

Dagger looked from Cutter to the interviewer, becoming increasingly confused. Cutter, however, understood immediately. "Y-you mean..." he said, swallowing, "you'll be taking over D-Dreamland?"

"Naturally."

Cutter felt rather sick at hearing that. He just thought this was some new job, not a takeover operation... Was this really something he wanted to get involved in? _I've only worked for King Dedede before... but what kind of king steals from his own people? Maybe working for these guys would be the better choice... You'd have to try pretty hard to be a worse king than Dedede! _

"Well, s-sir—"

"Captain. Captain Vul."

"...Well, C-Captain Vul... I think I agree that Dreamland could use a better ruler." Cutter gulped, but tried to look determined. "I can definitely try to help you guys with this!"

Seeing his friend looking so determined, Dagger grinned, and donned a similar expression. "Yah! Wehelp!"

"Good. I'm glad you're seeing things our way," Captain Vul said with a smirk. "Oh, one last thing..."

"Yeah?"

"Reveal any of our secret information to the public, and we will kill you."

Cutter felt a shock of cold run through him, and he felt like he would pass out when he saw Vul casually fiddle with a revolver. The bird was not kidding about that, apparently. "U-uhh..."

"C'mon, Vul, you don't need to intimidate every new recruit," came a somewhat familiar voice from the darkness behind Vul. A short knight stepped into view, wearing a three-pointed helmet and goggles that resembled insect eyes. "We need Heavy Lobster to be completed as soon as possible, so another person joining the programming team would definitely help speed things up a bit."

"Hrmf, why don't you let me have some fun once in a while, Mace?"

_Mace... where have I...?_ Cutter started as the events from a few months ago came back to him. _Oh great, this is one of those crazy knights we ran into when we were running from the police! Scrapmetal, if he recognizes me, I'm in trouble…!_

"Well then, Cutter," Captain Vul said, snapping the Sir Kibble out of his thoughts. "You heard helmet-head over there."

"H-huh?" Cutter stammered, blinking in surprise. "Y-you mean... I'm hired?"

"Yeah. You and your friend need to show up here first thing tomorrow, and you can get started. Go on, then." With that, Captain Vul and Mace Knight departed, heading deeper into the underground fortress.

"Yay!" Dagger cheered, giving a short hop and striking a victory pose. "Weget job!"

"Uh... yeah, I g-guess we did," Cutter remarked, still rather stunned at how quickly everything had happened, and, really, _what_ had happened. "…Dagger?"

"Yah?"

"…K-keep your mouth shut, a-all right? I r-really _don't_ want to die!"

* * *

><p>Mace Knight followed Captain Vul out of the room and deeper into the base. He glanced back at where they'd come from, scratching the back of his head. "Do you really think those guys showed any potential?"<p>

"None whatsoever," Vul replied, crossing his wings behind his back.

"Well, the Kibble _did_ say he could program AI."

"He said he dabbled in it. He'll likely be worthless for that, and in the end he'll just be another lackey. Same with that friend of his." He then gave a cough that suspiciously sounded like "cannon fodder."

At that, Mace sighed, rubbing a gloved hand across his face. "Where'd the boss come up with this guy?" he muttered to himself.

"I AM A PERFECTLY CAPABLE CAPTAIN!" the bird squawked, whipping out his revolver and firing at the knight with a loud blast.

Immediately the knight scurried away with a yelp, eying the bird from a safe distance. "Okay, okay, I get that you're the captain, but please put that thing away!" he whimpered, covering his helmet with his arms and adding in a whisper, "Man, I picked a bad time to leave my mace in my room!"

"You shouldn't question your master's hiring me as captain, anyway," Vul said, crossing his arms. "I'm sure he wouldn't like that, would he?"

"Yeah, I know..." Mace said, rolling his eyes. "But Axe is the one steering the ship, though. I thought that's what the captains normally did... So what the heck will you be doing?"

"Aside from ordering you idiots around… firing the weapons." The hawk spun the revolver around with one finger before slipping it back into its holster.

"Why am I not surprised...?" The knight smacked his hand against his face.

"_GUYYYYYYS!_" called a new voice, which made both Mace Knight and Captain Vul cringe. Immediately following, a round figure wearing a horned helmet and skull mask and carrying a large axe charged toward them, nearly bowling Mace over. "Did we get some new recruits? Huh? Did we?"

"Sheesh, calm down!" Mace shoved the other knight away from himself. "Yes, we did! Just a Sir Kibble to work on programming Heavy Lobster and a Blade Knight as a general crew member. Why do you ask?"

"...I dunno! I forgot."

The taller knight slumped a little, heaving a sigh. Axe was going to give him a serious headache if Vul didn't blow his head off first.

"..._Oh!_ Wait! A Kibble and Blade Knight?" Axe exclaimed. "That sounds familiar!"

Mace blinked. "...Hey, you're right, it does!"

"I wonder why..."

The two stood there for a moment, thinking, while Captain Vul gave them a funny look.

"..._Oooooh!_ I remember now! Two of those guys used to guard our old fort!"

"Which you happened to blow up, as I remember."

"I did not! I just made that self destruct switch 'cuz of Trident!"

"Who happened to be drunk when he made that suggestion."

"How was I supposed to know that?"

The sound of a revolver firing silenced both of them, and they turned to see Captain Vul looking none-too-happy. "Finally," the bird said, putting the gun away once more. "Go report to your master about the new recruits, and _shut up_ already!"

"...Yes sir." With that, the two turned and began to march down the dark corridors of their fortress. As they walked, though, Axe glanced at Mace. "It _still_ wasn't my fault!"

Mace swiped Axe's weapon and smacked him with the handle.

* * *

><p>"How's it comin'?"<p>

"Just a few more lines of coding and I should be all set with this part..."

Cutter sat at a console, watching the green text appear on the black screen as he typed. He'd only been working for a week, but things had been progressing pretty fast, at least, as far as the project he was working on was concerned. He'd become part of the Heavy Lobster team—or, more specifically, the part of the team that was working on programming the artificial intelligence of the robot.

"Hey, Blaze," he asked, glancing over at the Burnin' Leo he was working with, "uh... why's it we're programming a lobster? I mean, lobsters aren't really intimidating, are they?"

"I dunno," the fiery Dreamlander said with a shrug. "Why, what would you have it be?"

"Uh... maybe something scary... like a Grizzo! They've got fangs and claws and..." He shuddered. "Well, they're just scarier. I mean, lobsters just have weird eyes... and giant tails... and big... huge... claws..." Wait... was something poking him in the back? Looking over his shoulder, Cutter found himself face-to-face with a mechanical lobster, and let out a yelp, ducking under the console.

Immediately Blaze began to crack up. "You're actually scared of lobsters?"

"SH-SHUT UP! I AM NOT!" Cutter blurted out, blushing furiously. He looked up from where he was hiding, and saw a Waddle Dee co-worker holding a miniature model of the Heavy Lobster robot they were working on. "H-he just... surprised me, is all!"

"Right, right, I got ya, I got ya..." the Burnin' Leo said as his laughs quieted. "So I guess you won't be scared of the one that's right behind you?"

"WHERE?" Cutter darted out from his hiding spot, wide eyed, but saw no crustacean crawling around behind where he'd been crouching. However, he did notice Blaze and the Waddle Dee laughing their heads—errr, bodies?—off. "...H-ha ha, guys, very funny!"

"I'm tellin' ya, Cutter, you're the best fun we've had in weeks!" Blaze said with a laugh. "Right, Wade?"

"Yeah," giggled the Waddle Dee. "It's been pretty dull around here."

"Well I can see why you're not getting any work done..." Cutter grumbled, stomping back over to the console and taking a seat again. "You two've been doing nothing but goofing around!"

"Yeah, so what?" Wade asked, tossing the Heavy Lobster model over to an empty spot on the console and missing. He watched as the model clattered to the floor and shrugged, turning back to Cutter. "D'you really think this'll get off the ground?""

"Well... I don't know, but I do know this..." Cutter stared blankly ahead, his mind wandering back to when he'd found out about King Dedede's stealing the Power Stars. "...In case this thing does get off the ground... I-I hope it succeeds."

Blaze and Wade exchanged glances. "Really?"

"Yeah." Cutter glanced back at the other two Dreamlanders. "I think Dreamland could use a new ruler."

The Burnin' Leo's eyes widened a little. He glanced at Wade for a moment, then looked back at Cutter, placing a paw on one of the Kibble's shoulder guards. "Hey, Cutter?"

"Er... yeah?"

Blaze leaned in close, looking him right in the face. "You take your job way too seriously."

Immediately the two relapsed back into hysterical laughter, leaving Cutter to sit there dumbly. "Rusty scrapmetal..." He shut his visor as his face began to take on a red color yet again. "I-is it really _that_ bad th-that I want to g-get some work d-done?" he stammered, voice echoing in his armor.

"Not at all."

Dead silence.

Blinking, Cutter lifted his visor, wondering what in the name of Popstar had made his two annoying co-workers shut up so suddenly. He glanced over at them, noting that their eyes were wide, their faces had gone deathly pale, and they were both staring at something behind him.

With a gulp, the Sir Kibble turned around, and startled when he was met with the gaze of two solid yellow eyes, partially shadowed by a silver mask. His eyes widened, and he somehow managed to find enough of his voice to squeak, "S-Sir Meta Knight...?"

Although everyone working under Operation Halberd knew they were working for Sir Meta Knight, former servant of King Dedede, few of them had actually _seen_ him. It was rare enough to be able to see him in his office, but randomly visiting another section of the fortress?

Cutter swore he saw the knight's eyes flash. "You are working hard, then?" Meta Knight asked, voice betraying no emotion.

"...Y-yes, Sir... I-I mean, I'm t-t-trying t-t-t—" His terrified stutter prevented him from saying much more.

"Very good, then." Without blinking, the knight turned to fix his gaze on Blaze and Wade. "I suggest you do the same."

With a whirl of his cape, Meta Knight turned and left.

The three Dreamlanders watched their superior leave, expression never changing from the stunned expression he'd left them with. As soon as Sir Meta Knight was gone, the three, in unison, whipped around and began to type at their respective stations at the console with more speed and fervor than they had ever done during their time working under the operation.

_Well, one thing's for sure,_ Cutter thought as he typed, _unlike Dedede, Sir Meta Knight sure knows how to get his employees to work!_


	2. Launch Day

It's Thursday. That means it's time for another chapter!

By the way, I apologize for the lack of interrobangs in this fic. They're in the original document, but FFN seems to like to get rid of them... Buh.

I already stated the disclaimer in the prologue so I'm not gonna say it again... So... on with the fic!

* * *

><p>Cutter and Dagger could hardly believe how quickly the winter months passed. Week after week they labored in the underground fortress, Cutter programming Heavy Lobster and Dagger doing general errands and grunt work. Soon it was spring again, and everyone was wrapping up their projects in preparation for the <em>Halberd<em>'s imminent launch.

"Let's see if he can follow me, okay?"

"Y-you got it, Blaze," Cutter stammered, hitting a key on his console.

The Heavy Lobster team stood around in the testing area, anxiously waiting to see the results of their months of hard work. The machine in question stood in the middle of the area, eyes dead and dim. Moments after Cutter had given it a command, however, it stood up, optics lit. Blaze approached it nervously, and flinched a little when the massive robot scanned him.

"Here we go... Let's hope this works!" With that, the Sir Kibble typed a sequence into the console and stepped back. Immediately Heavy Lobster's claws jutted forward, opening and spewing out a stream of flames, and Cutter yelped, ducking under the console.

"GWAAAAHHH!" Blaze exclaimed, darting out of the way of the robot's flamethrower. Heavy Lobster kept its optics locked onto the Burnin' Leo, though, and followed him around, still shooting flames everywhere. "WHY IS HE ATTACKING ME?"

"I don't know, maybe because he's a _weapon?_ He's s-supposed to do that!"

Heavy Lobster shut its claws, pulling them in and hunkering down, suddenly blasting forward in an attempt to ram into Blaze. When that failed, it spun around, shooting out mini-lobsters at the Burnin' Leo.

"OKAY, OKAY, WE GET IT, HE WORKS!" Blaze yelped, attempting to outrun the mini mechanical crustaceans. Unfortunately he wasn't quite fast enough, and one of them rammed into him, sending him flying across the room. The crowd backed away, allowing the Burnin' Leo to sail straight into the wall. Seeing that, they burst into cheers.

"...He can perform all his attacks…" Cutter murmured. "He works…" He scampered out from under the console, grinning. "He works!"

Suddenly the robot blasted forward, making its way toward Blaze once again. "_AAAAAAAAAAAAAA_ SHUT HIM OFF, _SHUT HIM OFFFF!_"

"...O-oh!" Blinking, Cutter hopped up and typed another sequence into the console, glancing over as Heavy Lobster suddenly shut down, about an inch away from crushing Blaze in one of its claws. The Burnin' Leo, seeing that, fainted. "...Heh! Now who's scared of lobsters?"

Some of the _Halberd_ workers in the adjacent rooms had heard the noise, and were poking their heads into the room to see what on Popstar was going on. Among them was Dagger, who tripped on his tongue as he reached the door.

Cutter, seeing his friend, rushed through the crowd of excited mechanics and programmers. Upon reaching the Blade Knight, he helped him up, grinning. "Dagger! Heavy Lobster's all done! Can you go tell Sir Meta Knight?"

"Buh?" The Blade Knight blinked for a few moments, then nodded. "…'Kay." With that, he gave a half-hearted salute, and walked out into the hallway, making his way toward the Meta Knights' rooms. As he did so, though, he began to realize that while he knew where the lower-ranked knights lived, he had no idea where Sir Meta Knight himself was. Heaving a sigh, he trudged around the fortress, searching for his superior's office.

Truth be told, Dagger really didn't like doing this work stuff. He wasn't overly fond of this "job" thing, and plus, it meant he got to see Cutter even less. What was worse was that Cutter had really gotten into his job, and would sometimes work overtime. Dagger had been hoping to get a chance to see him at work today, but now Cutter had sent him off... He wished he didn't have to do this.

The Blade Knight was so lost in what little thoughts he had, that he wasn't really paying attention to his surroundings, and wound up bumping into someone. Blinking, he glanced down, seeing a short Waddle Dee adjust the sailor cap on its head.

"Oh! 'S'cuse me," he squeaked, beginning to waddle by.

"'Kay..."

The Waddle Dee noticed that Dagger looked rather glum, and tilted his head. "Hey, are you lost?"

"Yah." Dagger nodded. "Needfind... Sir Meta Knight."

"Oooh, you're looking for Sir Meta Knight too!" the young 'Dee said with a smile. "I can take you to him!"

At that, Dagger brightened up a little. "Thankyuu!" he said, giving a slight smile.

"No problem!" The brown puff then began to lead the Blade Knight around the various hallways of the fortress, easily navigating the confusing layout. Glancing over his shoulder, he waved his paw toward one direction. "This way!"

Before they could get any further, though, the Waddle Dee bumped into someone who was blocking his way, and nearly knocked his sailor cap off. "Hey!"

The person he'd bumped into turned out to be a large, round knight in strange orange armor. He had an odd crescent moon symbol on his armor and was carrying a large trident. ...Or rather, he was supposed to be carrying it, but he instead had it stabbed into the floor and was leaning on it for support. "Whut's th' pashwurd...?" he slurred with a hiccup.

"C'mon, Trident, it's me, Sailor Dee!" the Waddle Dee shouted. "We need to find Sir Meta Knight!"

"He'sh busy," Trident Knight said, leaning against his weapon so far that it popped out of the ground and clattered to the floor, sending him to the ground as well.

"Well, this's important! ...Isn't it?" Sailor Dee blinked, looking back at Dagger.

"Um... yah. ...Ithink so." Dagger scratched his head.

"See?" Sailor Dee exclaimed, spinning around to face Trident... only to give a confused look when he saw him sleeping on the floor. "...Oh." Shrugging, he waddled past the knight and continued to make his way down the hallway. "Trident's weird when he's drunk."

"...Buh-huh," Dagger mumbled, glancing at the sleeping knight before following the Waddle Dee.

"Here we are!" the brown puff said proudly, knocking on a large door. After waiting a few moments, he heard a muffled "come in" and excitedly opened the door. He poked his head in to look around before scampering in, Dagger following.

Sir Meta Knight's office was rather fancy and clean. The room sported a dark-colored, luxurious carpet; a nice, neatly-organized desk with a wheeled chair behind it; a few other chairs at the other side of the desk; and had a window that looked out into the hangar, where an enormous battleship was docked. The knight himself was looking out this window, standing with his back toward his two guests. He turned, however, when Sailor Dee approached him. "Ah... hello Sailor Dee. What is it?"

The little Waddle Dee squeaked, turning around and pointing at Dagger. "He needs to tell you something."

Meta Knight glanced over at the Blade Knight. "What is it?"

Dagger rocked on his heels nervously. He'd been given indirect orders all this time, so this was the first time he'd actually seen his boss. "Um... C-Cuh'er sendme... here. Theyfinish... Heavy Lobster."

"Ah!" the knight said happily, giving Dagger the odd mental image of his boss smiling beneath that helmet. "This is good news! Nearly everything has been finished, then."

Dagger smiled a bit. He didn't understand everything that was going on in this whole operation, but he figured he should comment anyway. "Yah! Almost done."

Sir Meta Knight's voice took a more serious tone. "I have a task for you," he said. "Tell the Heavy Lobster team to load the robot onto the _Halberd_. Once they've finished that, tell them they'll be doing general crew work from now on, unless repairs are needed for the robot."

"'Kay." With that, Dagger saluted, turned around, and began to make his way back down the hallway. As he did so, he went over what he was supposed to say a few times in his mind. The Heavy Lobster team had to take their robot to the _Halberd_, and then they were to do general crew work.

...Wait. Wasn't _he_ a general crew member, too? That meant...!

Immediately the Blade Knight spun around, charging back into Sir Meta Knight's room, and, without a thought as to what he was doing and whom he was doing it to, gave the knight a friendly lick across his mask. "THANK YUU!" And, once again, he rushed back out the door.

Sailor Dee watched all of this take place with a look of total horror on his face, and, once Dagger was gone, looked over at his boss, eyes wide.

Sir Meta Knight said absolutely nothing, standing there for a moment before wordlessly reaching a gloved paw over to his mask and slowly wiping the slobber off.

Sailor Dee began to back up toward the door. "U-um... I gotta go d-do... stuff now. Bye!" With that, he scurried out of the room.

* * *

><p>Time seemed to breeze by, and before Cutter and Dagger knew it, the <em>Halberd<em>'s launch day had arrived. The entirety of the crew was scrambling about, double-, triple-, and quadruple-checking every little thing to make sure nothing was forgotten.

Cutter, who had somehow found time for a quick break, slumped against the wall near one of the entrances to the hangar. "Yeesh, I can't believe how busy everything's gotten...!" he gasped, rubbing the top of his helmet. "I almost miss working with Blaze and Wade on Heavy Lobster."

Dagger, who was standing next to Cutter, whipped his head in the Sir Kibble's direction, a hurt look on his face. "Buh...?"

"Huh? Oh, it's just that I liked that part of work better, not this..." He paused, taking a moment to watch all the crew members rushing around madly. "...chaos. Seriously, can things get any crazier around here?"

As if on cue, a panicked Capsule J literally blasted his way into the hangar, looking around frantically. Spotting Cutter, he grabbed the Kibble by his shoulder guards and shook him. "I HAVE SOME VERY VERY BAD NEWS!"

"Wh-wh-what is it?"

"_Kirby is on his way here!_ Someone needs to inform Sir Meta Knight!"

"...Oh, is that all?" Cutter gave the Capsule J a confused look. "What's wrong with—"

"What's wrong? Kirby is on his way here, and you ask me _what's wrong?_" the Capsule J shouted. "Don't you get it? He's going to try to stop everything!"

"Wh-what?" _Kirby? Try to stop everything? But... why? He doesn't like Dedede either, does he...?_ "W-wait, so why can't you tell Sir Meta Knight yourself?"

"Because I have to do something... uh… over there!" With that, he blasted off before Cutter had a chance to respond.

"Why Kirby... trystop?" Dagger asked, giving Cutter a funny look.

"...I-I dunno, but apparently this is a b-bad thing!" _Especially given how that Capsule J was acting... But why would he be so freaked out?_

Suddenly Cutter felt his blood run cold as his mind flashed back to a certain part of his interview from a few months ago—namely, when Captain Vul threatened to kill him if he revealed their secrets. If they even suspected it was him that let Kirby know about this whole thing, he was as good as dead. "R-rusty... scrapmetal...!" he stammered, his face starting to turn gray.

"Let'sgo!" Dagger said, snapping his friend out of his thoughts. He began to walk toward the _Halberd_, where Sir Meta Knight and the other higher-ups were getting things ready.

"_No!_ No, Dagger, stop!" Cutter yelped, darting in front of his friend to block his path. "Y-you stay here, a-all right?"

The Blade Knight startled at that, looking hurt again. "Buh...? But... wannago withyuu."

"N-no, trust me, just s-stay here, all right?" the Sir Kibble said. "J-just meet me on the ship b-before the launch!" With that, he took off toward the _Halberd_, leaving Dagger to stand alone in the middle of the chaos.

* * *

><p>"Woo! Things are looking great, Sir!" Axe Knight said as he checked over all the monitors and dials and other things.<p>

"Yup, nothing can get in our way," Mace Knight said, tugging on the chain of his mace and smirking.

"And if they try, we can just blast 'em down!" Captain Vul laughed, pulling on one of the controls to adjust the cannons.

"Yes... our time has come," Sir Meta Knight said as he gazed out of the window of the bridge. "The time to—"

A knock at the door interrupted the group. Sailor Dee glanced at Meta Knight, and despite the fact that his superior's face still betrayed no emotion, he got the feeling that he was rather annoyed. "Um... I'll get it!" the Waddle Dee said, making his way over to the door and opening it. "What is it? We're kinda busy here..." He glanced back briefly at the others, who had resumed talking.

On the other side of the door was Cutter, whose armor was visibly and audibly clattering. "U-u-um... I h-have something i-important t-to tell S-Sir Meta Knight..."

"Really?" Sailor Dee blinked. "Well, he's busy, like I said, but I can take a message for 'im!"

"U-um..." The Sir Kibble hesitated, his face turning a few shades paler. "I-I j-just received a r-report that K-Kirby's on his w-way here."

The room went completely silent. One by one, Sir Meta Knight, his knights, and the captain all turned their eyes on Cutter, giving him expressions varying from unreadable, to shocked, to furious.

Captain Vul was at the doorway in an instant, shoving the muzzle of his revolver into Cutter's visor. "I should've known it was you who would be the one to mess up this whole thing, you little _traitor!_" he snarled.

The Sir Kibble's voice took on a much higher pitch than was normal for his species. "Oh scrapmetal _pleasedon'tkillmepleasedon'tkillme._"

"I warned you about this one, and now—!"

"Vul," came Sir Meta Knight's calm, yet serious voice. "He was just reporting what he has heard. That does not make him the traitor. We have more important matters to attend to now." That having been said, he reached for a microphone on the console and spoke into it. "All crew members prepare for launch!"

Vul grumbled, returning the gun to its holster and walking back into the bridge. Cutter, meanwhile, passed out.

* * *

><p>Dagger sighed as he rode through hangar on a Wheelie, trying get around all the other <em>Halberd<em> crew members. He was still upset that even though Cutter was now working the same job as him, his friend still seemed to be avoiding him! Did Cutter like work more than he liked hanging out with him now?

Oh well… he had to focus on his current job. He'd been asked by one of the crew members to help bring some of the Wheelies on board the ship, and he had to do that as soon as possible, since the _Halberd_ was supposed to launch shortly… though he wasn't exactly sure what these Wheelies were for. Then again, he didn't understand what half the jobs he did around here were for anyway.

In any case, he had to rope a bunch of Wheelies together in a line, and ride the one in the front of the line to the ship. It was harder work than he'd imagined, since these were wild Wheelies that did not like cooperating with other Dreamlanders. It took quite a long time (and quite a few ropes) before he'd finally managed to tie them together, but at least the hard part was over, right?

A high-pitched honking noise caused Dagger to glance to his side, where he saw a slightly smaller, unroped Wheelie driving next to him, gazing up at him with a curious look in its eye. Dagger waved to it, and the Wheelie squeaked, driving around to the other side. It then looked at the Wheelie that Dagger was riding, and, seeming to grin a little (as much as a Wheelie could without a mouth, anyway), leaned over, and poked it in the eye with its handlebar.

The larger Wheelie, which was already agitated, swerved a bit and revved its motor angrily. "...Buh oh," Dagger whimpered, just before the sentient motorcycle bucked him off of its saddle and ran over him. This, of course, caused all the other Wheelies in the line to run over him as well.

"BuuUuuUUUuuUh..." Dagger whined dizzily, pushing himself up on his paws once the exhaust cleared. The smaller Wheelie gave a pleased honk, and followed its larger companions up a ramp onto the _Halberd_. At least they were going where they were supposed to go, anyway... He hadn't been told where _specifically_ on the ship they were supposed to go, but he'd let whatever crew was on the ship now deal with that.

Heaving a sigh, Dagger trudged over to the ship and up the ramp, allowing other crew members to rush past him. Briefly (and a little bitterly) he wondered if Cutter had finished telling Sir Meta Knight about Kirby's approach, and glanced around the crowd to see if he could spot his friend.

Actually, it didn't take him long at all to spot a sickly-looking Sir Kibble leaning against the wall on the deck. Cutter was still looking a bit paler than was healthy, and his armor was drenched with sweat. Though Dagger didn't look too good either, considering all the tire tracks, and Cutter was quick to notice that.

"Er... wh-what happened to you?" he asked.

"Pffffbt!" Dagger spat, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall as well.

"...All right, don't answer me."

"_The Halberd is launching in T-minus ten minutes!_" announced Axe Knight over the loudspeaker.

"Really, though, you're covered in tire tracks!" Cutter continued over the loudspearker's booming. "Are you all right?"

"_Reactor one, output normal_."

Dagger glanced at Cutter out of the corner of his eye, looking unimpressed.

"_Adjust the balancer to... 0003!_"

Cutter looked a little irritated at that. "Hey, I'm just wondering if you're all right or not. You don't have to be so mad!"

"_Let's raise the anchor._"

"Yuunot... _really_ care."

"_Check anti-gravity plant. One, two, three, okay!_"

"_What?_! What makes you say that?"

"_Raise the sails, solar lever two-eighty-eight!_"

"Yuu wurk... lots. Nopay attention... to me!"

"_The time has come. The time to show our power!_"

The words hit Cutter hard. He'd... never thought about that. He'd gotten so wrapped up in his job that he'd been forgetting to hang out with Dagger!

"_Dreamland's lazy lifestyle will end! I will rule!_"

Before Cutter could get the chance to respond, the familiar sound of the twinkling of a Warpstar was heard off in the distance. All members of the crew had finally boarded the ship by now and had taken their respective positions, and had gone totally silent. Were it not for the Warpstar's noise, one could hear a pin drop.

"_All on deck prepare for battle!_" boomed Sir Meta Knight's voice over the loudspeaker. "_All others prepare for takeoff!_"

The momentary silence suddenly shattered into an explosion of sound as all of the _Halberd_ crew on deck prepared to meet Kirby. Cutter and Dagger, meanwhile, attempted to scurry as quickly as possible away from where Kirby was most likely to land.

"Great!" Cutter exclaimed, throwing his paws up into the air. "Now we have to fight Kirby!"

"Yuu fault!" Dagger spat as he ran. "Yuu signup... for job!"

"Yeah, but you're the one who gave me the flier!" He shook his head, attempting to concentrate on where he was going, but he couldn't help but be annoyed. Why was Dagger going on about this _now?_ "Scrapmetal... maybe I _did_ have a reason for not wanting to hang around you!"

"Jurk!"

The two continued squabbling like this for some time as they ran before they realized that they had run into a very serious problem: neither of them knew where they were.

"Oh, great!" Cutter grumbled, screeching to a halt. "Now where are we?"

"Iunno." Dagger stopped as well, looking around. "...Where Kirby?"

"Why are you asking about _him_ when we don't even know where _we_ are?" Cutter glanced at Dagger askance before looking around the deck, trying to get some bearing as to what part of the ship they were on. He soon spotted a batlike wing off to the side, and nodded. "Oh, looks like we're toward the back... At least we won't bump into Kirby anytime soon this way."

"Buuuh?" Dagger gave his friend a confused look. "Whynot... want find Kirby?"

"Because those guys"—he pointed up to the front of the ship to indicate Meta Knight and the others—"don't like him, and I don't wanna hang around people they don't like!"

"ButKirby friend!"

"Not right now! Not if he's gonna get me killed...!" But Cutter faltered a little at that last part, surprised at his own words.

"BUH?" Dagger shot a glare at his friend. "Kirby _my_ friend...!"

"So do you wanna get killed too?" He was about to say something else, but cringed when the sound of destruction reached his ears. "Speaking of which..."

"Buh-oh!" Dagger whined, looking behind him.

"I'm not staying for this," Cutter whimpered, charging towards the end of the ship. Dagger glanced back and followed him, despite his annoyance with his friend. "K-Kirby might not recognize us, especially if we're working here! We don't w-wanna get in his way..."

Though he wished he could stay behind to talk to Kirby, and even though he was really not happy with Cutter right now, Dagger had to admit that his friend was probably right. He continued to follow the Sir Kibble, occasionally glancing over his shoulder to see if Kirby was still heading their way.

Cutter glanced behind himself occasionally too, but eventually when he faced forward again, he realized that the deck was ending, and there was only a short railing that was between him and the hangar. "Woooah!" he yelped, screeching to a halt before he tipped over the railing. "That was close..."

And, of course, Dagger, being Dagger, wasn't looking, and bumped into his friend, sending them both over the railing.

"AAAAAAAAGHHHH!" _CLANG!_

Both of them bounced off of something huge and metallic before falling flat on the ground—Cutter first, then Dagger, who wound up on top of the former.

"Dagger, get off!" came Cutter's muffled voice, and the Blade Knight obediently stepped off, but crossed his arms and gave his friend an annoyed glance.

"Now wherewe?"

"Hrmf." Cutter ignored Dagger's dirty look as he stood up and looked around. Immediately he spotted the huge nozzle, and flinched. "O-oh scrap...! Th-this is the nozzle! When this ship blasts off, we're gonna die!"

"Buh?"

"It'll blast us backwards into the hangar if we don't move!" Cutter scampered around, looking frantically for a place to hide. "Where to hide, where to hide...?"

"Iunno!" Dagger exclaimed, looking around as well. He rushed over to the edge and looked over the railing to judge just how far of a drop it would be to the floor of the hangar. Although he wasn't very bright, he could still tell that they would probably not be able to drop to the bottom of the hangar without sustaining an injury of some sort, and he winced. "Umm..."

It hadn't taken Cutter long to realize that there really wasn't that much room behind the nozzle, and he whimpered, rushing over to where Dagger was. "Scrapmetal, Dagger! N-now look at what's happened! Th-there's no way out of here!" Although that did strike him as odd... Why would there be space here behind the nozzle if there wasn't any way to access it or get off of it?

Dagger shot Cutter another glare, but before he could say anything, started at a noise and looked at something beyond the Sir Kibble.

"What is it?" Cutter turned around, noticing a door that he'd missed before starting to open up from the ship. Immediately Kirby jumped out, looking around frantically.

"Uh oh!" the puffball said, not noticing either Cutter or Dagger as the two ducked down at the edge of the deck. "Did I take a wrong turn?" He darted up to the nozzle, looking it over. "Whoops, this is the back of the ship!"

"M-maybe he'll leave now..." Cutter whispered.

Dagger just whined a little, wishing he could talk to Kirby without getting into trouble.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, in the bridge of the <em>Halberd<em>, Mace Knight and Captain Vul were looking over a screen, Axe Knight and Meta Knight were at the main console, and Sailor Dee was standing back, watching the four. Outside, Trident Knight—who was sober for once—and Javelin Knight—a robot—stood at the door, guarding the entrance to the bridge.

"Sir, look! Those two crew members are by the nozzle with Kirby!" Mace Knight said, pointing at a screen.

Sir Meta Knight briefly glanced at the screen, but said nothing other than humming thoughtfully before turning away to look back at Axe Knight, who was turning various knobs and dials to get the ship ready to launch.

"Whaaaat?" Captain Vul squawked. "Those deadbeats! Why don't they attack Kirby?"

"Doesn't matter," Mace said with a shrug. "We're in the process of launching Heavy Lobster, like you asked, so that should take care of him."

"But where is he?"

"He's coming!" Mace glanced back at the monitor, then did a double-take. "Kirby is just behind the nozzle now!"

Axe Knight, not paying attention to his companion as usual, grinned beneath his skull mask. "Ready for takeoff now! She can fly at any time!"

However, Vul was still concentrated on the screen, waiting for their robotic weapon's arrival. "Hurry it up!" he shouted, knocking Mace in the helmet. "Where's Heavy Lobster?"

"W-wait..." Sailor Dee squeaked as he listened to both conversations. "If we're about to launch, and Kirby's behind the nozzle, and Heavy Lobster's going after Kirby... then that means—!"

"Oh shut up!"

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Kirby began to head back into the ship, when the sound of metal grinding and screeching startled him. "What's going on?" he wondered aloud, plugging his nonexistent ears. A few pieces of the metal railing from the deck above clattered down next to Kirby before an enormous robot jumped down, massive feet slamming onto the deck right behind the nozzle.<p>

"Heavy Lobster!" Cutter whispered, backing up closer to Dagger in terror. "Th-they sent him after Kirby?"

While it was true that he wasn't exactly keen on siding with Kirby at the moment since that would likely make Captain Vul blow his brains out, the thought of Kirby being defeated by something he had had a paw in creating made him feel ill. "Th-this isn't good..."

"Wehelp Kirby?" Dagger suggested in a whisper before jerking back a little in surprise when Heavy Lobster started spewing flames out of its claws.

"W-we can't!"

"YIKE!" Kirby bounced out of the way of the flames, wide-eyed. "What kind of lobster has fire breath?"

Dagger blinked, glancing to Cutter at that one. The Kibble sighed. "Well, don't look at me. I didn't design the weapons."

Meanwhile, Heavy Lobster shot a few mini-lobsters at Kirby, which the puffball quickly inhaled and shot back. Despite the noise of the fight, however, the noise of the ship starting to take off was difficult to ignore. Cutter and Dagger watched with wide eyes, wondering what was going to happen now.

* * *

><p>Sailor Dee watched the battle on the screen, standing on the tips of his feet. "Kirby is fighting Heavy Lobs—"<p>

"Initiate takeoff!" Sir Meta Knight commanded, not having heard Sailor Dee over the chaos. "We'll blow Kirby away!"

"Okay!" Axe Knight said with a nod, punching a button. "Main engine ignited!"

"This is taking too long!" Captain Vul growled, shooting a glare over at Axe. "Now! Take off!"

Sailor Dee, who was tired of being ignored, rushed over to Mace Knight and tugged on his arm. "Mace, look! That'll blow up Heavy Lobster and those two!" he shouted, pointing frantically at the screen.

"It will?" Mace glanced at the screen, then did a double take. "Oh—wait—_what?_! We're taking off _now?_"

Axe heard him that time, and glanced over at Mace. "Umm... yeah, why, is that a problem?" He looked over at the screen as well. "...Hey, is that Heavy Lobster?"

"I-I think it might be a good idea to stop the ship, Axe!"

"Err, it's a bit late for that!"

Vul just shrugged. "Ah, let 'em all get blown up."

* * *

><p>The <em>Halberd<em> was going to take off any second now. Cutter knew it. They were going to get blasted by the exhaust from the ship and sent flying, and they were going to die. "B-but I don't wanna die...!" Glancing around, he noticed the railing behind him. "Dagger, hold on to this!" he exclaimed, grabbing the railing himself.

"Buh? Why?"

"Just do it! _Hurry!_"

But just as the Blade Knight reached for the railing, a blinding light enveloped the area, and an earsplitting roar drowned out the sounds of Kirby, Cutter, and Dagger's screaming, as well as the sound of Heavy Lobster's being blown to pieces.

Before he had the chance to get blown away, Cutter felt a horrible pain in his right foot when something slammed into it, pinning him against the railing, but ultimately preventing him from getting blown away. He soon realized that it was one of Heavy Lobster's claws, both halves of which were still intact, the upper half looming over his head. Something else slammed next to him—the robot's head.

And, dangling by one paw from the railing, was Dagger. By some miracle he hadn't lost his grip, but that wouldn't last for long.

"_DAGGER!_" Cutter screamed, trying to lean over the railing as much as possible.

"Gonna fall!" Dagger shouted back, struggling to pull himself up. The ship was already over the Orange Ocean, the colorful waves splashing about what seemed like miles below.

Cutter took hold of Dagger's paw, frantically trying to pull him back up onto the deck. "Dagger, don't let go! Don't—"

A split second later, the Blade Knight lost his grip, and dropped.

Too stunned to even scream after his friend, Cutter fell back, limp. A strange mechanical sound barely caught his attention, and he weakly turned to see Heavy Lobster's head next to him. The sound wasn't coming from that, though—it was coming from the upper half of the claw.

Cutter swore he saw the eyes of Heavy Lobster glow red before the claw crunched down on him.


	3. Declaration

Ack, I almost forgot to update today! But I didn't, so... here's the next chapter! I hope you enjoy.

Oh, also, I guess I didn't mention this in other chapters... If you have any constructive criticism you would like to give, I am very much open to it! Since Commercial Writing is one of my majors, I would very much like to improve my writing skills. So yes, concrit is appreciated, but you don't have to give it if you don't want to.

I'm not going to add the disclaimer this time, but for anyone that's wondering, the new character that makes a brief appearance in this chapter is mine, though his species belongs to Nintendo/Hal, of course.

Now... on with the fic!

* * *

><p>Silence swept over the bridge as the <em>Halberd<em> finally took flight over the Orange Ocean. The silence was partially from awe that their plans were finally going into action, and partially from shock at what had just happened moments ago.

"...Looks like Kirby was blown into the ocean," Sailor Dee said quietly.

"Hmm," Mace Knight said after a pause, nodding. "That was a close call."

"Too close." Sir Meta Knight whirled around to look at the monitor that displayed the short length of deck behind the nozzle. The deck itself was fine, of course, but scattered all around it were pieces of metal that once made up the Heavy Lobster. "...Why was Heavy Lobster sent behind the nozzle," he asked flatly.

"Um… He did it!" Mace exclaimed, pointing at Captain Vul.

Vul shot a glare at Mace, which made the knight uncomfortable, though he was glad it was a glare that the captain was shooting at him rather than a bullet. After a moment, the bird turned to Meta Knight. "I'd sent him before Kirby arrived at the nozzle," he said as he crossed his arms. "I really don't think it's that much of a loss, now, is it, sir? After all, Kirby's gone—"

"And he will come back," Meta Knight interrupted, the faintest hints of anger creeping into his voice. Immediately Axe, Mace, and Sailor Dee stood up straight and rigid, looking at their superior with terrified expressions, while Vul remained unmoved. "Captain Vul. Are you aware of how long it took to build Heavy Lobster?"

"Yes, and I hired the team that made him. They built him once, so they can rebuild him."

"Possibly, had you not just killed one of the members of the team, plus another crew member due to your thoughtless action."

The two lower-ranked knights and Sailor Dee both looked between Sir Meta Knight and Captain Vul as their two superiors stared at each other. It seemed like an eternity before Meta Knight turned around and spoke into the microphone, ordering some crew members to retrieve the pieces of Heavy Lobster and repair it. He then turned off the mike, but did not turn around. "It was because of a lack of focus that Heavy Lobster was destroyed and two crew members were killed on our account. That will not happen again."

He spun around, eying them all. "Let's have a test. Set a course for Grape Gardens."

* * *

><p>Cutter slowly drifted into consciousness, feeling sore and disoriented. Where was he...? What happened...?<p>

He tried to stand up, but one of his feet was not working, causing him to collapse. Not that he could have walked if it had worked anyway; he was horribly dizzy, and it hurt to put pressure on that foot.

As his vision started to clear, he realized that he was lying on a cot in some sort of medical bay, with a few other Dreamlanders lying on some cots beside his, unconscious. Running his paw over his head, he felt bandages tied over his messy hair.

...Wait, that meant...

Immediately the Kibble blushed, scrambling under the covers. "Wh-where the scrap d-did my armor go...?" he whimpered.

"In the scrap pile," came an unfamiliar, monotone voice.

Turning to his other side, Cutter saw, standing a few feet away, a... something. He blinked a few times, staring at it for a while, but he simply could not figure out just what species it was. It looked vaguely like a Biospark, since it had dark gray armor like one (although the visor was gone) and a red-orange ponytail, but it also had some traits that reminded him of a Sir Kibble, and maybe something else.

"...Wh-_what_ are you?" he asked, wincing when he realized just how rude that question was.

"Cursed, apparently," the thing replied. "You can call me Cadmus, though."

"O-oh... um... So... why is m-my armor in the s-scrap pile?"

"Because you were fortunate enough to get crushed between the two halves of Heavy Lobster's only intact claw," Cadmus replied.

"...F-fortunate? How is that _fortunate?_"

"Because if you had not been pinned to the ship by that claw, you would have been blown off of the ship and to your death. You should be also thankful that it mangled your armor instead of you."

"Oh." Cutter thought back for a moment, trying to remember why he had been crushed by Heavy Lobster's claw... and froze. "_Oh no_," he said in a small voice.

"What?"

"U-um..." He swallowed, voice taking on a higher pitch. "M-my friend... h-he uh... d-did... D-did anyone see a r-rather tall Blade Knight somewhere? L-long tongue, n-no helmet _oh scrap p-please tell me he's somewhere_." Swallowing, he turned to look at the other side of the room again, trying to see if he could spot Dagger lying on one of the cots.

"No, not that I know of. Why?"

Cutter turned to look at Cadmus again. "B-because..." He could feel himself start to shake. "B-because... I think he g-got blown off the sh-ship...!"

"Oh." Cadmus blinked. "Probably another casualty, then."

"_NO_." Cutter held his head in his paws. "No, he didn't d-d-d... He didn't. ...H-he hit the water."

"Which would be the equivalent of hitting cement from—"

"_I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT._" The Sir Kibble grabbed the pillow from his cot and covered his head with it. "J-just... get me another s-set of armor and g-get me out of this m-med ward..."

"You're in no condition for that."

"_I don't care_."

"Suit yourself." Slowly, Cadmus began to walk away. "You're a bit smaller than a normal Kibble and I don't believe the armory has something exactly your size, so I hope you don't mind wearing something a bit bigger." When he didn't get a response, he looked behind himself to see Cutter still lying there, holding the pillow over his head, and shivering. "...Hm." Without another word, he exited the room.

* * *

><p>Dagger remembered falling off of the ship—that was for sure. But... he didn't know how he'd gotten to wherever he was now.<p>

He could feel something soft beneath him... and could hear the pleasant sound of waves. Opening his eyes, he was greeted by the sight of a clear blue sky. But he didn't know how he got there. He'd gone from getting blasted off of a ship, to lying in a peaceful place... He tried to focus, thinking about what that could possibly mean, but thinking was always hard for him.

The reason hit him quickly. Of course! It was so obvious! How could he have not realized it sooner?

Hopping up, he looked around to confirm his theory that he had been blasted to another planet. When he did so, he was awarded with something nailing him in the head.

"Ow!" he exclaimed, rubbing his head and turning around. He immediately forgot his theory upon seeing what appeared to be a large fledgling bird of some sort that stood only an inch or so shorter than him. Although it had grown up a lot, Dagger still recognized it as one of Dynablade's chicks, whom he and Cutter had helped last fall. He grinned widely. "Bruth'r!"

The Dyna-chick gave a friendly chirp, leaning forward as Dagger wrapped his arms around him in a hug. He then backed up and fluttered his wings in an excited manner, happy to see that his "brother" was all right.

Dagger's grin faded a little, though, and he turned to look back at the sky for a moment. The _Halberd_ was still visible. "...Wut happ'n?"

Chirping again to get Dagger's attention, the bird held out one of his wings, then pointed to himself with one of his pinion feathers. He then flapped his wings about, pantomiming flying. After that, he pointed to the ship that was flying off into the distance, pointed at Dagger, then pulled his wing down, indicating a dropping motion. He gave an exaggeratedly worried look before pantomiming flying again, faster this time, and then pointed at Dagger again, then at the ground.

Dagger stared at the Dyna-chick for a moment before slowly cocking his head to one side.

The bird hung his head, smacking his wing over his face.

After a moment or two, the gears clicked into place, and Dagger perked up. "Oh! Yuusave me?"

The Dyna-chick jumped up, flapping its wings and chirping in triumph. He then nuzzled Dagger with his beak, while the Blade Knight wrapped one arm around him in a hug again.

When the bird stepped back, Dagger gave him a hopeful look. "Save Cuh'er... too?"

The Dyna-chick looked a little surprised at that, and gave a saddened look, ducking his head.

Dagger started at that. "..._Not_ saveCuh'er?"

The bird shook his head.

The Blade Knight stood there in shock, trying to process this. He'd been saved, but Cutter hadn't...? How was that possible? "...See Cuh'er?" he asked, looking around the beach. "Anywhere?"

Looking up, the Dyna-chick gave a sad chirp.

With a whimper, Dagger turned around, looking back at the ship that was flying away. He couldn't remember exactly what had happened when he'd been blasted off of the ship; those events had happened so fast that they were all a blur. Had Cutter fallen off of the ship, too? What had happened to him...?

He felt a pain in his gut when he realized he'd been fighting with Cutter just before he'd fallen off the ship... Dagger had said some mean things, but how was he supposed to apologize if he didn't know where his friend was, now? Sadness filled him at that thought, but he shook his head, expression determined. Cutter couldn't be gone! He had to find him! And maybe Kirby too, while he was at it... Since he wasn't on the ship, he wouldn't get in trouble if he talked to the puffball, would he?

"Bruth'r!" he exclaimed, spinning around to face his "sibling" again. "Gottafind... Kirby! And Cuh'er!"

The chick blinked, looking from side to side before giving a questioning chirp.

Dagger put his paw to his chin at that one. Good question... Where _would_ they find those two? He had no idea where Cutter could be, so he tried thinking about where Kirby might be. The puffball had definitely blasted far off of the ship, and he could fly a bit, so it was entirely possible that he was somewhere around here. "Find Kirby," he said with a nod. "Look 'round... here!"

At that, the Dyna-chick nodded, quickly glancing around the beach and turning around to march into the forest. Dagger followed. The forest was still light, so it wasn't too hard to see. From the looks of things, they weren't in Whispy Woods, but rather some smaller forest near Mount Dynablade, somewhere on the edge of Green Greens. That would explain why the Dyna-chick was here, anyway.

"Kirbyyyy!" Dagger called, cupping his hands around his mouth to amplify his voice. "Kirbyyyy! Where yuuuuuuu?"

The Dyna-chick watched the Blade Knight for a moment before mimicking him, holding his wings at either side of his beak and calling, "Tweet-tweeeeeet!"

The two carried on like this for some time, but had little success in finding the puffball they were searching for. Dagger's voice was starting to get a little hoarse from calling, and his posture was slumped a little as he walked. "Kirbyyyy! Kirb—"

Before he could finish the word, an explosion blasted him and the Dyna-chick off their feet and into a clump of weeds. The two heard unpleasant snickering somewhere up in the trees, and looked up to see a familiar duo hanging out on one of the lower branches.

Blast was standing there, holding a second, unlit bomb in one hand and snickering, a wide grin on his face. Jolt hovered at his side, trying his best to look intimidating, but was immediately cowed by the Dyna-chick's hopping up and screeching angrily at him.

"Thought that would get your attention," Blast said, lowering the bomb and tucking it under his arm. "So... what do we have here? Dagger, something looks pretty different here."

Dagger looked down to examine himself, wondering what on Popstar looked so different. He _was_ covered in dirt and sand… "Clothes… dirty?"

"…I meant your company. Where's Cutter, eh? He didn't get in trouble, did he?"

Dagger glared at Blast at that one, but didn't answer.

"Oh, or did he, maybe, get his face blasted off by that birdbrain captain of yours when he found out that loser was friends with Kirby?"

Dagger started. Captain Vul hadn't found out about that, had he…? "H... he fine!" he said, face turning a bit pale.

"Oh, I'm sure..." The Poppy Bro. snickered again. "Those guy's'll definitely wipe out Cutter, if Kirby doesn't plow 'im over first! Why d'you think I gave you that flier?"

It took Dagger a couple moments, but he remembered when he'd received the flier that advertised Project Halberd. That's right... wasn't it Blast who had given it to him? "Y-yuusaid... yuu friend."

At that, Blast threw back his head in full-out laughter. "Yeah right! I can't believe you actually fell for that!" He stared down at the Blade Knight, his grin looking a little more sinister. "Now Cutter's an enemy to both those _Halberd_ guys _and_ Kirby!"

_Now _Dagger understood the situation, and he glared at Blast, tongue retracted into his mouth as he grit his teeth.

The Dyna-chick looked from Blast to Dagger, not really understanding any of this other than the fact that Blast was upsetting his "brother." His eyes narrowed at the Poppy Bro., and he chirped angrily.

Seeing this, Jolt looked up at Blast fearfully. "Ummm, Momma?"

"Don't call me that!" Blast snarled, swatting at Plasma Wisp. "What is it?"

"Z-zorry, Blazt... But... I don't think it'z zuch a good idea to tell them all of that ztuff..."

"Why not?" the Poppy Bro. scoffed. "What's he gonna do?"

_WHAM!_

Blast nearly lost his footing on the branch as Dagger rammed his full weight into the tree. Jolt looked around for something, and yelped, instinctively clinging to Blast. Before the clown could ask him what was going on, the Dyna-chick swooped at them, knocking them off the branch.

"Owww...!" Jolt whined, wiping at the tears beneath his goggles. "That hurt!"

"You're telling me..." Blast groaned, sitting up and rubbing his back. "Now what's-"

Before he could finish speaking, Dagger picked him up by the collar. "Yuu _bad!_" he shouted.

"H-hey, threatening a guy when he's down's pretty low, ain't it?" Blast asked with a nervous grin. "I-I can't undo what I did, you know!"

Dagger considered this for a moment before setting him down. "...Yuu still bad."

Blast made a face. "That's what you get for making me lose my job!" He then switched back to his trademark grin, taking a few steps back. "Now, like I always do, it's time to go out with a bang!" With that, he reached for the bomb he'd been carrying, only to find that it wasn't there. "What the...? Where'd that bomb go?"

"Um, Blazt...!" Jolt whimpered, pointing up.

The clown followed Jolt's pointed glove, noting that the Dyna-chick was flying above them, carrying the now-lit bomb in his talons. Dagger had already dashed away, so his "sibling" didn't hesitate to drop the explosive onto the Poppy Bro.'s head. With a brilliant flash, the bomb went off, and the Dyna-chick had to dart out of the way as Blast and Jolt were sent flying to who-knows-where.

Dagger had been knocked off of his feet by the blast, but was otherwise unharmed. "...Yuu sure... that 'kay?" he asked, giving the Dyna-chick an unsure look.

The bird just rolled his eyes before giving his "brother" a look that seemed to say, "Well, they were mean to you."

"...Yah." Dagger rubbed his head. After a moment, though, he hunched over, thinking about what Blast had told him. Was Cutter really an enemy to Kirby now...? That couldn't be right... Kirby was their friend. They had helped him before, back when they went to rescue the Power Stars, and when they stopped Dynablade from stealing the crops.

Though he knew Blast was right about the captain's not liking Kirby... Cutter had told him that before. What if they found out that he and Cutter had helped Kirby before, though? He didn't want that crazy bird to hurt Cutter!

First thing was first—he had to find Kirby. Kirby wouldn't tell anyone about his friendship with Cutter, and if he warned Kirby beforehand that Cutter was still probably on the _Halberd_, then maybe Cutter would be safe! Hopefully...

But there was still one big problem. Dagger lifted his head, giving the Dyna-chick a worried look. "Buh… Where Kirby?"

* * *

><p>"<em>THERE HE IS!<em>"

At the bridge of the Halberd, the five members of the crew that were present stared at one screen that showed a Warpstar rapidly approaching. Riding on that Warpstar was a very unwelcome pink visitor, wearing a deceptively cheerful smile on his face.

"_I don't believe this!_" Captain Vul screeched, pounding his fist on the console in rage. "He came _back!_"

"K-Kirby's flying after us!" Axe Knight sputtered, still bewildered that their opponent had survived both Heavy Lobster's attack _and_ being blasted off the ship.

Sir Meta Knight did not seem surprised in the slightest. He simply stared at the screen intently, eyes narrowing slightly. "Stop him."

Mace Knight glanced at Captain Vul, who was glaring at him, one wing resting on the holster of his gun. "Ummm..." Knowing very well what that meant, Mace began to rapidly type a few commands into the console. "Okay, main cannons are online." He glanced back at Vul nervously. "...Shall we fire?"

Vul grinned, knocking Mace out of the way and grabbing the controls for the Combo Cannon. "Fire away! FIIIIIRE!" he squawked, cackling as he fired several shots at Kirby.

Sailor Dee winced as he watched the screen, feeling a little guilty when he realized he was hoping that Kirby would be all right.

* * *

><p>"<em>Kiiiirrrrbyyy! Where yuuuuuu?<em>" Dagger called as he and his "brother" resumed searching through the forest. They hadn't been searching for long, but the Blade Knight felt they were _never_ going to find their friend.

The Dyna-chick hadn't given up hope yet, though. He was determined to help his brother! Looking around, he tried to see if he could spot the pink puffball he remembered seeing as a hatchling, but paused, hearing something. He looked up, then suddenly began chirping and flapping his wings wildly.

Dagger, hearing the commotion, turned around, giving his "sibling" a funny look. Why was he looking up like that? Did he think Kirby was going to fall out of the sky?

At that very moment, something rather soft rammed into Dagger, although it didn't feel very soft at the moment, given how fast it was going when it hit him. "Ooof—!" Dagger grunted as he was slammed into the ground.

"Sorry... Seems like cannon balls and Warpstars don't get along very well," the thing said with a slight giggle. "You okay?"

"Yah..." Dagger mumbled, pushing himself up. "I k—" He froze, eyes wide as saucers as he stared at the pink figure that was dusting himself off in front of him. "K... _Kirby?_"

"Huh?" Kirby looked up, then smiled cheerfully. "Yup, that's me! Wait, wha—_Dagger?_" he exclaimed, staring at the Blade Knight in amazement. "Wow, it really is you!"

Before the pink puff had the chance to say anything else, Dagger lunged forward, tackle-hugging him. "_KIRBYYY!_" he half-sobbed, so relieved to see his friend again. "Yuu here!"

"It's good to see you too, Dagger...!" Kirby said, choking a little as Dagger squeezed him. Eventually he managed to slip out of Dagger's arms and take a breath. "Whew, you're strong." He gave a half-smile, but that was soon replaced with a concerned look when he saw tears at the corners of Dagger's eyes. "Hey, you okay?"

"I k-kay..." Dagger whimpered, wiping at his eyes with his sleeves. "Cuh'er not! He on... _Halb'rd_!"

"Cutter's on the _Halberd_?" Kirby exclaimed. "Y'mean those guys captured him?" His wide eyes soon narrowed a little. "Don't worry, Dagger, we'll get 'im back!"

"Nuu!" the Blade Knight shouted, waving his gloved paws about. "Nuu, Cuh'ernot... capture'd..." He hesitated, glancing away and kicking his foot a little. His "brother" walked over to his side, giving a questioning chirp.

"He's not?" Kirby gave his friend a confused look. "If he's not captured, then what's he doing on the _Halberd_?" Before Dagger could answer, the puffball brightened, clapping his stubby paws together. "Oh! I got it! He's trying to stop 'em!"

Wincing, Dagger shook his head. "...Nuu."

"Wha...? Well sheesh, what's he doin' there?"

Dagger felt immensely guilty as he recalled what others had said. Kirby had been trying to stop Sir Meta Knight, so would he be mad if he found out...? But he couldn't really hide this from his friend... Sighing, he looked down at the ground, too ashamed to look his friend in the eye. "...Cuh'er... wurkfor... Sir Meta Knight."

"_Wuh?_" Kirby exclaimed, eyes wide. "Are you _serious?_"

"Yah... I too."

"Y-you both are...?" The pink puff rubbed his head, frowning. This was a lot to take in. "Well, what're you doing that for? Don't ya know that Meta Knight's bad? He wants to take over Dreamland!"

"Buh..." Gulping, Dagger looked up at Kirby nervously. "Sir Meta Knight... _reelee_ bad?"

"Yes, really!" Kirby pointed in the direction of the _Halberd_, through the trees. "He's gonna attack Dreamland with that big ship! Does that sound good to you? Why d'you wanna work for a guy like that?"

"Ummm..." Dagger winced, glancing away. "Needmoney."

Kirby shook his head. "There's no time for excuses. We gotta get on the _Halberd_ and stop those guys before they hurt someone! We'll look for Cutter while we're there, too."

"Buh... but how... geton ship?"

"Hm..." Kirby put his paw to his mouth in thought, then glanced over at the Dyna-chick, who had been standing next to Dagger quietly during their exchange. Seeing that, he grinned. "I think I have an idea!"

* * *

><p>A Sir Kibble clad in silver armor stood next to a strange puffball in front of the doors to the medical bay. The former had a bandage wrapped around one foot and was holding a pair of crutches. He was also slumping a little, appearing to be in a sort of dull shock.<p>

"S-so... It was Captain Vul th-that sent Heavy Lobster... behind the nozzle... to go after Kirby?" Cutter asked quietly.

"Yes. And he wants you to join the rest of the Heavy Lobster team in repairing it, if that's within your ability at the moment." Cadmus eyed him carefully. "You're absolutely certain you want to do this? You're free to stay here at you wish." The words were said without a hint of concern in the medic's voice.

"I'm... certain," Cutter said, though his hesitation contradicted his words.

"...Very well. Good luck, then." With that, Cadmus re-entered the room behind him.

Cutter, now alone, carefully limped a distance down the hall with the assistance of his crutches, and leaned against the wall. _I can't believe all this has happened..._ he thought. _Because I joined this operation... and because I helped make that robot... Dagger... _He shut his eyes. _Is... is this really all my fault...?_ He shuddered at that thought, and tried to put it out of his mind.

_...I... I have to do something about this. I don't know what, but I have to!_ He wiped at the tears that were stinging at his eyes. _Sorry, Captain Vul_, he thought bitterly, _but I'm not gonna let you hurt anyone with that robot again! You'll pay for what you did to Dagger!_


	4. Combo Cannon

Hiya folks! It's Thursday, so that means it's time for another chapter, murhur! Hope you enjoy this one.

Also, I would like to thank the ones that took the time to review! You know who you are. Reviews are optional on this website, of course, but they're always a huge encouragement! Thanks again!

On with the fic!

* * *

><p>Things seemed to be going rather smoothly in the bridge of the <em>Halberd<em> since Kirby had been shot down. Captain Vul was rather pleased with his marksmanship, while a few of the others were a little terrified by it. It didn't help much that he was still boasting about it, either.

"Did you see him plummet when that cannonball hit him? Hah! That pink puff didn't see it coming! Some warrior he is! He's no match for the Combo Cannon!"

"Y-yes, we know, Captain Vul," Mace Knight said with a wince.

"D'you think he'll come back again?" Sailor Dee asked quietly. He squeaked in surprise when Vul suddenly spun around and shot a glare at him.

"Of course not! I blasted him out of the sky!" the captain snarled. "Shot 'im down! Obliterated him! Why would he come back?"

"Uh... guys?" Axe said nervously as he stared at one of the screens.

"There's no way he could have survived a blast from the Combo Cannon!"

"Guys?"

"He was blown to smithereens! Just like th—"

"_GUYS!_"

"WHAAAT?" Vul squawked, turning to look at Axe. "What is it?"

"Um... Kirby's back."

Immediately everyone's attention was directed to one viewscreen that displayed something on the left side of the ship. An enormous bird with rainbow-colored, razor-shaped feathers was rapidly making its way towards the _Halberd_, and riding on its back was a certain unwelcome pink visitor.

"Kirby _is_ back!" Sailor Dee exclaimed, eyes widening.

"_What?_" That was Sir Meta Knight. "Why is he accompanied by Dynablade?"

Vul was still staring at the screen, and his eyes narrowed in anger when he saw who else was riding on the giant bird. "Look at that!" he screeched. "_Look at that!_ That's that low-life Blade Knight we blasted off of the back deck!"

"It is?" Mace Knight rubbed his eyes under his goggles, as though to make sure what he was seeing was real. "He's still alive...?"

"That's not the point! He's flying with _Kirby!_ He's a traitor! A trai—"

"Captain Vul," Meta Knight said, "shut up."

* * *

><p>The crew members on the bridge weren't the only ones to spot the monstrous bird that was flying toward the ship. Cutter, who was limping through a hallway on one of the lower levels of the ship, happened to glance out the window… and, suddenly forgetting his air sickness, did a double-take.<p>

"What?" he exclaimed. "Dynablade...? What's she doing here?" He moved closer to the window to get a better look, but it was hard to see her from where he stood. Because of where he was on the ship, he could only see her underside. "Is she going to attack the ship...? I-is..." The Sir Kibble's eyes widened in realization. "Is she trying to help Kirby?"

* * *

><p>"Momma Bladeburd… help lots!" Dagger exclaimed, hugging Dynablade's neck. He was riding on her shoulders, whereas Kirby was riding on her back. "Imiss yuu!"<p>

Dynablade squawked proudly, seeming to smile despite her lack of lips. She, of course, was more than happy to help the ones who helped save one of her chicks. Instead of looking back at them, though, she faced forward as she flew toward the ship.

"Yeah, I haven't seen you in a while, either. Thanks for this, Mrs. Dynablade!" Kirby said with a smile. "Can you drop us off at the deck?"

Nodding, the bird started to turn towards the deck of the ship.

* * *

><p>"They're getting closer!" Mace Knight shouted, holding his head in panic. "Whadowedo?"<p>

"I'll tell you what we do!" Captain Vul swung his wing at the knight, knocking him away. "Shoot—" he rushed over to one of the consoles, "—her—" and grabbed the controls for the Combo Cannon once more, "—_down!_"

Before anyone could protest, Vul pulled the trigger.

* * *

>A sickening <em>CRACK<em> sounded through the air, accompanied by a deafening screech.

"_MOMMA BLADE-BURD!_" Dagger screamed, eyes wide in horror as he looked over at Dynablade's left wing, the bone of which had entirely snapped from the force of the cannonball hitting it.

The bird began to spiral, holding out her one good wing in an attempt to slow her descent. She shook her head around, attempting to knock Kirby and Dagger away.

Kirby understood immediately. "Dagger, let go!" he exclaimed, frantically jumping off of Dynablade's back and puffing up. "Grab my foot!"

"No! Momma Blade-burd…" Dagger clung to her neck, tears stinging at his eyes. "Flapwings! Pleez…!"

Dynablade glanced sadly back at the Blade Knight, giving him a look that seemed to be pleading him to let go.

Dagger shook his head. "No, no...!" The Blade Knight yelped when Kirby snatched the back of his shirt. "No, nonononono…!" he whimpered as he looked down at Dynablade, who kept the same expression. He felt his heart sink as he stared into her eyes, and slowly let go.

"Let's go...!" With that, Kirby puffed up as much as possible, flying up towards the deck of the ship. "D-Dagger, look away..."

He couldn't. While he and Kirby were flying to safety, his friend was plummeting to her doom, and he could do nothing to help her.

"Momma Blade-burd...! _Momma Blade-burd!_"

* * *

>Cutter had turned away the instant he heard the Combo Cannon fire, eyes wide in shock as he realized what had just happened. "O-oh scrap..." he stammered as he felt the blood draining from his face. "Th-they just..."<p><p>

He looked back at the window, just in time to see Dynablade's tail feathers disappear from his sight. "Dynablade... Th-they just..."

* * *

>"...shot down Dynablade," Axe Knight said, still somewhat in shock at what had just happened.<p><p>

"W-we did?" Sailor Dee squeaked, waddling a few steps back. "W-we shot down that big bird...?"

"...Yes," Meta Knight said slowly, turning his gaze to Captain Vul. "It appears as though we have. Though I do question that course of action."

"_Whaaat?_" Captain Vul blurted out when he saw that all eyes were on him. "What were we supposed to do? Let her attack the ship?"

"Was she attempting to do so?"

"How the heck am I supposed to know?"

The crew stared at him for a moment before going back to their duties.

Mace Knight looked over at the screens while Axe went back to steering, and did a double-take. "W-what... b-b-but... no way!" he stammered, eyes widening beneath his goggles.

"What?" Axe turned for a second. "What do you see?"

"Kirby's on the deck! And he's with that Blade Knight!"

"_HE'S STILL ALIVE?_" Captain Vul shrieked. It was impossible—absolutely impossible! "How can he still be alive? I've shot him down _two times_ already!"

"Well _obviously_ you're not shooting him down very good," Axe remarked, then ducked when Vul shot a bullet at him.

"Relax," Sir Meta Knight said, instantly silencing the group. "We must handle this calmly."

"Yeah, yeah, I got it," Vul grumbled, turning on the microphone and speaking into it. "Listen, you lubbers! I want you all after that Kirby! _This instant!_"

* * *

>"Dagger, come on..."<p><p>

"N-no..."

Kirby stood by Dagger, who was curled up on the edge of the part of the ship they'd landed on, shivering and whimpering miserably. Kirby was looking rather upset as well, but seemed to have better control over his emotions.

"Look," Kirby said, wiping some of the tears that were stinging his eyes and placing a paw on Dagger's back. "I... I know it's terrible what happened... but we have to keep going!"

"N-no want to..." Dagger choked between sobs. "Momma Blade-burd...!"

Kirby sighed, grabbing one of Dagger's arms and moving it away from the Blade Knight's face. "Dagger, if we don't keep going—if we don't stop this whole thing, a whole lot more people're gonna get hurt. Mrs. Dynablade was trying to help us stop Meta Knight... Don't you think she'd want us to keep tryin'?"

His face stained with tears, Dagger looked up at Kirby. "Y-yah," he said, wiping his face and trying to give a determined look. "We... westop... th-them!"

Just then, the two heard the announcement that Captain Vul had made over the loudspeakers. That startled them, and Dagger hopped to his feet.

"Oh great, they know we made it back onto the deck!" Kirby exclaimed, eyes widening when he saw some of the _Halberd_ crew members rushing toward him. "C'mon, Dagger, we have to do somth—" He did a double-take, looking at the spot where Dagger had been standing. "...Dagger?"

"BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUH!" the Blade Knight cried, charging headlong into the crowd. They immediately stopped running, a little confused as to why someone who they thought was on their side was charging toward them. This distraction wound up causing them to get bowled over by the enraged helper, who rammed into them and knocked them off to the side.

"There we go!" Kirby said, smiling as he rushed to join his friend. "That's the Dagger I know!"

Turning to look over his shoulder, Dagger gave a determined grin and a salute. "Yah! Weget 'em!"

* * *

>Cutter had heard the announcement, and was secretly relieved that Kirby was still all right, despite the captain's shooting at him twice. <em>I think... I think I understand why he wanted to stop all of this, now<em>, the Sir Kibble thought sadly. _…Dynablade… and Dagger… Dagger…! _He shut his eyes tightly, pulling on the visor of his helmet and shaking. _No… I can't break down again…! I need… there… there was an announcement…_

Still, despite that announcement, he was not going to go after Kirby. _I need… I need to get back to Heavy Lobster... He… needs to be ready for whenever Captain Vul needs him…_

The Sir Kibble paused.

_For whenever…_

His eyes widened. _That's it,_ he thought. _That's what I need to do._ With that in mind, he continued on his way down the hall.

* * *

>Captain Vul glared at the viewscreen, which displayed Kirby and the traitor Blade Knight plowing through various lackeys. "Those stupid little...!" he growled under his breath, before speaking up. "I can't believe this! Kirby and that traitor are back on the ship, and no-one's doing <em>anything<em> about this!" He gestured at the viewscreen with a wing. "Look, they're just walking over everybody! It's ridiculous! What sort of worthless cronies did we hire, anyway?"

He did not stop to think about the fact that _he_ was the one who had interviewed all of them. "And you guys," he said in a low voice, with a quick glance over his shoulder. "Just sitting around here like a bunch of lazy bums!" He turned around. "What are you doing standing there, when—"

The bird froze.

Axe Knight and Mace Knight were nowhere to be found. Taking Axe's position was Sir Meta Knight, who had been silently steering the ship while Vul had gone off on his tirade. Sailor Dee, meanwhile, was observing some of the ship's monitors.

Sir Meta Knight kept his focus on the wheel, and did not turn when he spoke. "Captain Vul," he said calmly, "if you are done ranting, I would like for you to get to your duty." He indicated the wheel by tapping a gloved paw against it lightly.

As he stared, the bird's stunned expression slowly turned to one of wounded pride. "...Yes, Sir."

* * *

>"Hurry up, Axe!" Mace Knight called without turning back as he charged across the deck.<p><p>

"What?" Axe Knight called back. "I can't hear you!"

Mace heaved a sigh and glanced over his shoulder. "I said, 'Hurry u—'"

_CLUNK!_

He collided with Trident Knight, who had been running slightly ahead. "Hey, watch it!" Trident grumbled, with no slur in his speech. He glanced ahead, where Lance Knight—the only robotic member of the Meta Knights—was blasting forward, having Kirby and Dagger's position logged in his memory. The group was following him in order to confront their antagonists.

"**Now approaching target**," Lance droned.

Up ahead, Kirby and Dagger had been plowing through everyone that stood in their way. Seeing the group that was charging toward them, though, they screeched to a halt, looking on in surprise.

* * *

>From the viewscreens on the bridge, Sir Meta Knight and Sailor Dee watched the fight that was about to ensue. "That's far enough, Kirby!" shouted the former, more in a commanding voice than an angry one.<p><p>

"Fight!" Sailor Dee squeaked, curling his tiny paws into fists as best as he could.

Captain Vul listened to this, and glanced over his shoulder. "Hah... now you will know the true power of... Meta Knight!" he exclaimed, a little hesitantly, and looked back at his superior.

Meta Knight simply glanced back. Although it was always hard to judge the armored puff's emotions, Vul got the feeling that he was not impressed. Frowning, the bird turned his attention back to steering the ship.

* * *

>"Yuu!" Dagger exclaimed, pointing a finger at the group of knights in front of him. "Iknow... yuu!"<p><p>

Mace, who had been preparing to rush forward and attack, stopped, blinking a few times. "Uh, yeah... I... know you, too."

"I don't think I've seen 'im before." Axe cocked his head—or body—to one side. "Aside from on the viewscreens..."

"...Hi!" Dagger said, suddenly grinning and waving cheerfully.

Kirby flinched. "Um... Dagger..."

"So uh, what are you doing on Kirby's side?" Mace asked, scratching the back of his head awkwardly.

"Buh?" Dagger looked back at Kirby, blinking, then turned back to face Mace Knight. "Ihelp... him... 'cuz _Halb'rd_ stuff... bad."

"It is?" Axe asked.

"Yah." The Blade Knight gave a sage-like nod. "It bad."

"Um..." Mace glanced back at Axe and Trident, who returned his bewildered look.

"Dagger?" Kirby tugged on his helper's side.

"Yah?" Dagger glanced down at the puffball.

"_They're the bad guys, too,_" he whispered.

"Oh." Dagger looked up at the Meta Knights, blinking, then did a double-take. "OH!" He pointed at them again, glaring this time. "_Yuu_ bad!"

"We are?" Axe asked, tilting his head to the other side.

Mace answered him by knocking the handle of his mace into Axe's helmet. "_Just fight them, you idiot!_"

At those words, Kirby and Dagger rushed forward.

__

* * *

><em>Fix Heavy Lobster, fix Heavy Lobster, fix Heavy Lobster…<em> Cutter repeated that phrase in his head, trying to focus on it and nothing else. If he let his mind wander, he would ultimately go back to thinking about what had happened earlier during the takeoff, and he couldn't afford that now. He had to keep his focus on his task. Slowly he hobbled down the hallway, stopped at a particular door, and carefully opened it.

The place where Heavy Lobster was being repaired was similar to the lab that it had been built in. Some Dreamlanders were swarming the offline robot, working to put it back together. At the same time, a couple other Dreamlanders, who were looking rather bored, were sitting at some nearby consoles, which the robot was hooked to.

When the door creaked open, however, those two Dreamlanders looked up and gave a start. "Dude—Cutter, is that you?" Blaze blurted out, eyes wide.

"Wow, so you really _did_ survive!" Wade looked the Sir Kibble over. "Geez, you're a mess!"

"Yeah, you aren't looking too great. Shouldn't you be at the med ward or something?"

Cutter hung in the doorway for a moment, mentally preparing himself for the stress of dealing with his co-workers. "…I'll be fine," he said slowly, starting to limp toward the consoles. "Captain Vul wanted me to help repair Heavy Lobster."

"You work too hard, man," Blaze said, crossing his paws. "If I were you, I'd just chill for a while."

"But you can't chill!" Wade pointed out, turning to look at his friend. "You're on fire!"

"You bet'cha!" the Burnin' Leo said with a wink, and he and his co-worker burst into laughter at their own jokes.

If Cutter were in a less somber mood, he would probably be fighting the urge to bang his head against one of the consoles. As it was, though, he climbed up onto a chair with some effort, and tried to focus on his job. "So what are we d—"

"_Seriously_, Cutter," Blaze said, scooting his chair closer to the Sir Kibble. He grabbed a hold of one of his shoulder guards and shook it. "You need to take a break for a while! I mean, you almost died!"

Cutter cringed.

"Yeah, you barely made it out alive!" Wade affirmed with a nod. "Not like that Blade Knight that got blasted straight into the Orange Ocean."

"I'm tellin' ya, I'm _so_ glad we're not on the deck right n—" Blaze gave a start when Cutter tipped completely off of the chair he'd been sitting on. Straitening up, the Burnin' Leo looked down at his co-worker. "…Uh, Cutter?"

Cutter stayed on the floor, making no effort to get up. _I need to get to work, I can't think about that right now, I can't, I can't, I can't I can't…_ His armor was clattering from his shaking at this point.

Wade and Blaze exchanged glances before the former hopped down from his chair, and approached Cutter. "Hey, are you all right?" he asked, reaching down to help the armored puff up.

Before the Waddle Dee could do anything, Cutter picked up one of the crutches that was lying on the floor and swiftly pointed it at Wade, causing him to back off. "**I'm fine**," he said, with much more force than he thought he was capable of using. Slowly he got up, and climbed back onto the chair. "What are we doing."

"U-um…" Blaze blinked. "We were just… programming Heavy Lobster to keep away from certain parts of the ship…"

"Y-yeah, any place that might hurt him, like the back deck," Wade explained as he climbed back onto his chair. "Then he won't go there if he's chasing Kirby again."

Cutter could see the map on one of the screens, with a few areas marked in red. "…Yeah, I see," he murmured with a short nod. Wordlessly he began to work on the program, keying in places that would bring potential harm to the robot. He said nothing, and neither did his co-workers.

* * *

>"Uuughhh... My everything hurts..." Axe groaned as he dragged himself toward the bridge.<p><p>

"Sir Meta Knight is going to _kill_ us...!" Mace whined, limping after his companion. "I can't believe we lost to Kirby!"

"That Blade Knight was helping him, though," Trident pointed out, grunting a little as he hauled a _very_ busted-up Lance Knight behind him. "That's how Lance got smashed."

"Don't _you_ get smashed, too, while we're on this ship," Mace spat as he gave the other knight a quick glance over his shoulder guard. "We're gonna be in enough trouble as it is!"

"I'm not going to." Trident hoisted Lance onto his shoulder. "I need to repair Lance."

"You sure are smart when you're sober," Axe said. "You should do that more often!"

"Mind your own business, Axe."

The three knights and the busted robot stopped at the door to the bridge. Axe and Mace looked at Trident, who tossed Lance unceremoniously to the floor and casually leaned against the robot's casing, glancing at his two companions expectantly, as though to say, "Well, are you going?"

The two exchanged glances, gulped simultaneously, and limped into the bridge.

"Took you morons long enough!" Captain Vul shouted upon the door's opening. "Axe, get over here and steer the ship!"

"Uh... A-aye-aye, sir!" the skull-masked knight stammered, scrambling over to his usual post. As he did so, Vul knocked him in the head. "Ow!"

"That's for losing to Kirby, you lazy bum!" the bird squawked.

"They tried," Sir Meta Knight said, glancing at Mace as the knight cautiously scooted over to the monitors. "Kirby is not to be underestimated."

"That's for sure," Mace groaned, rubbing his forehead as he looked up at the screens. "Speaking of Kirby, it looks like he's trying to get up to the top deck."

"Ah, is that so?" Vul asked, grinning as he crossed his wings. "Well then, let's guide him in front of the Combo Cannon!"

"Didn't expect _that_ plan," Axe commented, only to duck when the captain fired a bullet at him.

"...It might work," Sir Meta Knight said slowly. "Close all paths in Kirby's way, other than those that lead to the Combo Cannon."

"Yessir." Mace Knight looked down at the console in front of him, and began to fiddle with the dials that controlled the elevators.

"Hmmm, d'you really think that'll work?" Sailor Dee stood on the tips of his feet, trying to get a better look at what Mace was doing, only to be pushed aside by Captain Vul.

"Of course." The grin on his face grew wider as he watched Kirby and Dagger on the ship's monitors. "Nothing can get past the Combo Cannons..._ Nothing_."

* * *

>Dagger heaved a sigh, rubbing his right arm a little. He'd just barely missed getting hit by Mace's weapon, although one of its spikes had grazed his arm. "Buh... We win?"<p><p>

"Yeah, they ran off," Kirby replied, dusting himself off.

"Wefollow?"

"Nah, we'll get to them later if we have to." He began dart over to another part of the ship. "C'mon!"

With a "buh" of surprise, the Blade Knight hopped up, and rushed after his friend. "Whatwe do?"

"We have some other stuff to take care of first," Kirby explained as he ran. "Those Meta Knights are tough, but they're not so tough without their warship! We're gonna take down the ship, and that should teach 'em!"

Dagger glanced around the ship, wondering what exactly Kirby wanted to "take down." Soon he noticed an elevator that was making its way down its shaft. "That down," he said, pointing at it.

Kirby screeched to a halt, turning to look at what Dagger was pointing at. "Huh?" He blinked, staring at the elevator for a moment. "Hey, just what I was looking for!" he cheered, rushing over to the elevator and hopping inside. "Let's go!"

"'Kay." Dagger carefully stepped on as well, looking around the small car and spotting a large "up" arrow button. Fascinated, he reached out and pushed it. Instantly the button lit up and the elevator began to ascend, causing the Blade Knight to start a little.

"Going up!" Kirby said with a slight laugh. "This'll take us up higher, to the top deck."

"'Kay," Dagger said with a nod, though he'd already forgotten why they were going up there. He blinked when the elevator gave a "ding!" noise and the doors opened. "Buh? It stop!"

"Yeah, that's 'cuz it brought us up a floor." Kirby stepped out of the car, but then rubbed his head in confusion. "Huh, guess it didn't take us to the top deck..."

"Do 'gain!" Dagger grinned, pressing the large "up" button once more. Oddly enough, it didn't light up this time, and the elevator remained stationary. "...Buuuuh?"

"Guess that's as high as this one goes..." Kirby said as he crossed his arms. "We'll have to find another one." With that, he turned around and began to walk down the hall, Dagger following.

It wasn't long before the two happened upon another elevator, but, like the last one, this one only took them up one floor as well, but never took them any higher or lower. The two found this as odd, but didn't question it too much. Instead, they continued to ascend different elevators, not really paying too much attention as to what part of the ship they were taking them to…

As they got off of yet another elevator, Kirby nodded in satisfaction. "We've gone up a lot of elevators, so I think we're almost there!"

And as soon as he said that, he yelped as something began firing at him rapidly.

Dagger quickly glanced to Kirby's side, where a Shotzo was hiding in the shadows. "Lookout!" he called, charging at his friend and tackling him out of the way of the cannon's line of fire.

The cannon, noticing its targets' new position, quickly re-adjusted and fired again. This time, though, the cannonballs sailed right over Kirby and Dagger's heads.

"Hah! Missed us!" Kirby said, sticking his tongue out as he and Dagger darted away from the Shotzo... only to drop into the hole it had blasted in the floor. "_Waaaah!_"

Dagger, seeing Kirby fall, attempted to stop running, but unfortunately fell through the hole as well. "_BUUUUUH!_"

The two of them dropped to the floor beneath, groaning a little. "Buuuuh... Thathurt..." Dagger whined, sitting up. "...It dark!"

"Ow... Yeah, it is." Kirby stood up, and began feeling around the wall. "Lessee... Here we go!" With that, he flipped on the light switch, and turned back to look at the illuminated room. "...W-what the...?"

* * *

>"What... is this place?" Mace wondered aloud, giving the monitors a funny look.<p><p>

"Iunno!" Axe replied, turning to look at the monitors as well. "Never seen it bef—_ack!_" He turned back to the steering wheel when Captain Vul smacked him with a wing, and grumbled a little.

"...Interesting," Sir Meta Knight said, glancing over at Sailor Dee, who was blushing a little.

"O-oh..." the Dee said quietly. "So that's where I left them..."

* * *

>Kirby and Dagger stared up at a number of shelves lined with bags and containers of colorful, delicious candy.<p><p>

"...I know we've got a mission to do, but... I think we can put that on hold for a minute." Kirby grinned. "Take five, Dagger!"

"Buh-huh!" Dagger cheered, charging over to one of the shelves. Quickly he wrapped his tongue around one of the jars of candy, and swallowed it whole. Kirby did more or less the same thing, though with the aid of his inhaling powers rather than a prehensile tongue. The two made quick work of the candy stash, and soon found themselves collapsed on the floor, on the verge of a food coma.

"That was yummy," Kirby said, a slightly dazed smile on his face. He glanced around the room, noting a few discarded (but empty) jars and bags, as well as a single lollypop that lay on the ground. "Hey Dagger, you missed one."

"Buh?" The Blade Knight looked up, spotting the candy on the floor. "Oh!" Smiling a little, he reached over with his tongue and swallowed the lollypop whole. Immediately he froze, eyes growing wide, and started to shake.

Kirby watched his friend, a little worried. "Uh... Dagger, you all right?"

Suddenly Dagger's eyes began to spin, and a crazy grin spread across his face. "WhhhhEeeeEEeEeEEEEEEEEEE!" he squealed, jumping up and running around the room at blinding speeds. It wasn't long before he started running up on the walls of the room, either.

"...Aw, I want an invincibility lollypop..." Kirby whined, sticking out his paw and grabbing the back of Dagger's shirt as the Blade neared him. "I get the next one we find!"

Dagger likely was not coherent enough to understand what his friend said, as, rather than acknowledging Kirby's statement, he charged up to the ceiling and through the hole they'd come from. He charged down the hallway and up yet another wall, this time somehow managing to plow straight through the ceiling.

"Well, this sure beats takin' the elevator!"

* * *

>"Uhhh, should we be worried about this?" Mace Knight asked with a wince.<p><p>

"Don't think so," Axe responded. "Kirby's gettin' closer to the Combo Cannon, isn't he?"

"You bet he is!" Captain Vul squawked in delight. "He'll be burnt to a crisp! Hahahahahahaha!"

Sailor Dee joined in with his own squeaky laugh. "Hehehe!" Axe and Mace exchanged glances, and joined in the chorus of laughter as well, filling the bridge with their guffaws.

This went on for a few moments before Sailor Dee, Mace, and Axe all dropped out, in that order, leaving Captain Vul laughing maniacally to himself.

"Bwahahahahhaa!" he cackled, glancing back at the others, only to slowly become aware that no-one else was laughing anymore. "Gahahahaa...! ...Hm." He cleared his throat, and went back to staring at the screen. "...Any time, now."

__

* * *

><em>CRASH!<em>

Dagger smashed through the roof, flying up into the air for a moment before landing on the top deck. "Heheheheheeeee!" he giggled, starting to run around again.

"Wooooah, there!" Kirby called from his perch atop the Blade Knight's shoulders. He had donned a pink cowboy hat, and was using the Blade's tongue as reigns. "Settle down, pardner! I think we're there!"

Of course, Dagger didn't pay attention, instead opting to run around in circles like an idiot as his sugar rush continued.

That lasted for all of two seconds, before an enormous blast of energy was fired inches above his head.

"...This ship ain't big enough for the both of us," Kirby murmured, taking off his cowboy hat (which now had the top half fried off) as he looked up at what had fired the beam. "Dagger, look."

The Blade Knight, now looking a little stunned, shuddered a little and looked up to see two enormous cannons, the top of which almost seemed to be glaring down at him. "Buuuuh?"

Kirby hopped off of Dagger's shoulders and landed next to his friend, but still stared ahead, glaring a little. "That's the thing that hurt Mrs. Dynablade."

"_BUH?_" Dagger blurted out, eyes widening. But soon they narrowed in rage, and he struck a ready pose next to his friend. "Yuu jurk!"

Somewhere nearby, an intercom crackled to life. "Hahahahahaha! This is the end, Kirby!" came Captain Vul's voice. The top cannon lowered its nozzle, pointed at both Kirby and Dagger. "Do you surrender?"

"Yeah, right!"

"Nuuu! Yuu _bad!_"

"Good!" Vul replied. "Bye-bye..." With that, the intercom turned off, and the second cannon sprung to life, opening up and starting to glow.

"Watch out!" Kirby cried, leaping into the air and puffing up.

Dagger did the same, snagging Kirby's foot as the puffball struggled to stay in the air. A massive beam blasted out of the bottom cannon, just barely missing the sole of Dagger's boot. "Buh...!" he whimpered, eyes wide as he held up one of his feet. The rubber on the bottom of his boot had melted a little, and he gulped.

"WOAH!" Kirby yelled, immediately dropping from the air. He grabbed Dagger's tongue and yanked him low to the ground as a massive cannonball sailed over their heads.

Dagger recognized the looks of the cannonball as the one that had broken Dynablade's wing, and retracted his tongue, gritting his teeth in rage. "It _bad...!_"

"Yeah, it's bad, but how do we stop it...?" Kirby glanced around, noticing the hole that Dagger had made in the deck from when he'd plowed through the ship. "Wait, that's it!" He darted off a distance, looking up at the top cannon and making a face. "Blaaaaah!"

Instead of the top cannon, though, the bottom cannon fired, the beam just barely going over Kirby's head.

"...Eheheh... that didn't work..." he said sheepishly, twitching a little. He shook it off, though, looking determined again. "Help me, Dagger!" With that, he began making faces at the top cannon again.

The Blade Knight had no idea what Kirby thought he was doing, but he wasn't going to not help his friend. Giving a nod, he rushed to the pink puff's side before turning around and facing the Combo Cannon, making faces as well.

As the two of them did this, the top cannon turned its nozzle toward them, as though it were about to fire. Before it did, though, Dagger (who had his paws at the sides of his head and was sticking his tongue forward in a silly face) suddenly gagged as something grabbed him tightly around the middle. He kicked and struggled in the grip of a giant mechanical claw, which hoisted him high up into the air above the top deck.

"Dagger!" Kirby cried in horror, losing his concentration. Suddenly the floor beneath him rose, and the lower cannon shot another beam at him. He narrowly dodged the beam, rolling off of the raised platform. "Guh...!"

Immediately after the beam stopped, the Combo Cannon's mechanical arm slammed Dagger into the deck, and released him. The Blade Knight gagged and wheezed, fighting to get his breath back. "Kur... bee...!"

Kirby looked at Dagger, then turned to glare at the massive cannon. "What's this thing's weakness...?"

"You idiot," crackled Vul's voice over the intercom. "The Combo Cannon has no weaknesses! It's invincible, unlike _you!_ Bombs away!" With that, the cannon's arm began chucking a volley of bombs at Kirby and Dagger.

"Bombs..." Kirby repeated as he dodged the cannon's attacks. "..._Bombs!_ That's it!" He opened his mouth wide, starting to inhale some of the bombs. As he did so, though, he noticed the bottom cannon charging and the floor beneath Dagger rising, and started to choke. "_DAGGER!_" He frantically spat the bombs out at the cannon, and charged at his friend, knocking him off of the platform before he was scorched by the beam cannon.

The two looked up, waiting until the beam stopped before they could see the results of the attack. Much to their dismay, there was not a scratch on the machine. "That didn't work...?"

Dagger gave Kirby an aside glance, holding up his tongue, which was wrapped around a still-lit bomb, and giving a questioning whimper.

"WOAH!" The pink puffball hurriedly knocked the bomb out of Dagger's grip and up into the air, where it sailed straight into the nozzle of the top cannon. "Whew, that was close..." He stood up, and helped Dagger to his feet. "Now let's—"

His voice broke off into a yelp as the cannon began to shake, belching flames out of its muzzle. "Let's get outta' here!" he cried, booking it away from the Combo Cannon, Dagger stumbling after him.

The two frantically leaped off of the top deck, just as a violent explosion rang out from behind them.


	5. Heavy Lobster

"_Waaaaaaah!_" Axe yelled, struggling to keep the ship stable as it shook from the explosion. "The Combo Cannon's been destroyed!"

"It's a wreck!" Mace added with a whimper. "We can't use it!"

"_WHAAAAAAAAAT?_" Captain Vul screeched, slamming his wings on the console in front of him. "How did—? How did he...? This isn't possible! My Combo Cannon! My precious weapon...!" He covered his face with one of his wings, and Axe and Mace got the sneaking suspicion that he was trying to keep himself from crying.

Once Axe was sure he had the ship under control, he turned to look at the monitors, soon spotting one displaying Kirby and the Blade Knight traitor frantically scrambling away from the top deck and making their way toward the left side of the ship. "Looks like Kirby's heading to the left wing!"

"The left wing?" Sailor Dee repeated, looking up at the monitors curiously. His eyes widened, and he turned to look at Sir Meta Knight in surprise. "You don't think he'd...?"

"_NO!_" Vul squawked, frantically reaching over to grab the loudspeaker. "All hands on deck! Keep Kirby away from the left wing!" He turned it off, gritting his teeth. "They might've gotten the Combo Cannon, but they're not getting the rest of my ship..."

* * *

><p>"<em>Gyaaah!<em>" Blaze held onto the console as the ship shook from an explosion. "What the heck was that?"

Cutter was holding onto the console, too, shuddering. "I-I... I th-think that was Kirby..."

"Sheesh! It can't be Kirby!" Wade shouted. "I knew he was trouble, but how in the name of Popstar could he cause an explosion like that?"

"Y-you'd be surprised," Cutter muttered under his breath.

"_All hands on deck! Keep Kirby away from the left wing!_" boomed Captain Vul's voice over the loudspeaker.

Blaze and Wade exchanged glances, wincing a little. "Aw man, do we really have to go on deck?" Blaze whined. "Isn't there, like, something else we need to work on here?"

"No," Cutter said, not looking up. His voice was flat. "Heavy Lobster's sufficiently protected from the more dangerous parts of the ship. He will not put himself in immediate danger unless explicitly told to."

"...Right," Wade said, edging away from Cutter a little. "Are you going with us, then?"

"Nope," the Sir Kibble said, sighing a little. "I'm in no condition for that..." Glancing up, but not at the others, he indicated his injured foot by lifting it slightly. "I'd just get in the way. Besides... I have something else I need to do here."

"Well, suit yourself," Blaze said with a shrug. He hopped off of his chair and began to make his way toward the exit.

"Wait a sec!" Wade hopped off of his chair as well, but rushed to a different part of the room. Propped up against the wall was a bag full of junk, which he began to dig through. "If we're gonna be over by the wing, it'll be pretty windy there! I don't wanna fall off this ship, so... Aha!" With a smile, he pulled out what appeared to be a small star, which he tossed to the ground. Immediately it expanded into a Warpstar that was slightly smaller than normal. "Brought this just in case."

"Hah, awesome!" Blaze cheered, rushing over to the Warpstar and hopping onto one arm of it. "Let's ride in style!"

"You got it!" Wade hopped onto the other arm, and steered the Warpstar out of the room and down the hallway.

By this time, the other mechanics had gone, leaving Cutter and the deactivated robot by themselves. The Sir Kibble looked from the door to the robot, and swallowed. "Well, here we go." With that, he carefully climbed off of his chair and limped over to Heavy Lobster.

* * *

><p>"Almost there! This way to the left wing!"<p>

Kirby had been reassuring Dagger like that the whole way since they'd gotten away from the Combo Cannon. Dagger had been having some trouble recovering from the attack and concentrating. While he was stumbling after Kirby, he'd only really been following his voice, rather than what he was saying.

One arm was wrapped around his stomach as he ran; the Combo Cannon's claw had hurt it when it grabbed him. But actually, his gut hurt for another reason... he was worried. They'd been on the ship for quite some time now, and there was no sign of Cutter. Where could he be…?

"Hey, Dagger, d'you hear me?"

The Blade Knight snapped out of his musing, looking over at Kirby. "Buh?"

"We gotta go down this way, but be careful... The wind's gonna be really bad, I think," Kirby said, looking over the railing on the deck.

Dagger looked as well. While there wasn't any deck there, the shape of the ship would allow them something to walk on in order to get to the wing. But even here, he could feel the harsh wind. "...Nolike it," he said quietly.

"We'll be all right, just don't lose your footing!" With that, Kirby easily hopped over the railing and began making his way down the side of the ship, Dagger following.

"Whatwe do?" he asked, retracting his tongue somewhat and watching his feet. The wind was getting stronger, and he braced himself against the side of the ship. "Whygo... here?"

"Man, Dagger, d'you listen to me?" Kirby gave him a funny look. "I said we're gonna find some way to mess up this wing! Maybe find a Bomb ability somewhere..."

"Why?"

"'Cuz it'll make it harder for the ship to balance. It'll make the ship start to crash if we do it right."

"_BUH?_" Dagger exclaimed, nearly slipping. He looked at Kirby in horror, eyes widening a little. "_Nuuuu!_ No wanna... dothat! Cuh'er... onship!"

The puffball winced a little, but tried to give a slight smile. "Hey... What's it he always says?"

Though the Blade Knight's memory wasn't perfect, there was no way he'd forget something like that. "He nowanna... die?"

"Exactly. So if he doesn't wanna die, he's gonna be trying to get offa' this ship as soon as it starts goin' down. If we don't run into him first, he'll prob'ly find a way to escape pretty quick."

Dagger couldn't argue with that, whether it was true or not—he wasn't very good at arguing anything. "...Buh'kay," he said, though he sounded a little uneasy.

Before Kirby could comment on that, the two were nearly knocked off of the ship as a Capsule J2 roared by. "Woah!" Kirby cried, flattening himself up against the side of the ship. "Somehow I don't think they want us here...!"

As if to confirm this, several grunts dropped down behind Kirby and Dagger, striking combat poses. A Waddle Doo was the first to attack, shooting a beam out of his single eye. Dagger just barely managed to dodge, and had to practically throw himself against the side of the ship to keep from falling. "Buh...!"

"Keep going!" Kirby grunted, struggling to move forward and away from his attackers. "We can't stop, or we'll fall...!"

"Iknow..." Dagger scooted after his friend, but kept a close eye on the _Halberd_ crew. "Go 'way!"

"Make us!" squeaked a short Poppy Bro., who started chucking several bombs at the two.

Seeing that, Dagger shouted over the wind, "Kirby, luuk!"

"Huh?" The pink puff turned around, immediately spotting the bombs. With a grin, he opened his mouth wide in an attempt to inhale them... but the combination of the wind and the Poppy's poor aim caused him to miss; the bombs fell beneath the ship. "Ack! It's too hard to inhale, here!"

The Poppy and several other Dreamlanders followed Kirby and Dagger as they slowly made their way toward the left wing. But the closer they got, the more difficult it was to keep their footing, and the more all of them began to focus on moving forward rather than defending or attacking. Even the airborne grunts like the Capsule J2 were struggling to keep up with the ship.

Suddenly, it happened. There was a shriek that was immediately carried away by the wind, and anyone looking toward the back of the ship could see a form plummeting into the Orange Ocean below. The _Halberd_ crew members froze, and Kirby and Dagger exchanged horrified glances. Silently they realized what had just happened, and continued to make their way toward the wing with even more caution. They tried to ignore a second shriek as a GIM joined its crewmate.

But flying along the edge of the ship were two other Dreamlanders, which gripped the Warpstar they were riding for dear life. Though they were having less trouble keeping with the ship than the others, they were no less terrified. "SEE, WADE? I TOLD YOU WE SHOULD HAVE KEPT OUR JOBS AT THE CAPPYMART!"

"SHUT UP AND HELP ME STEER!"

Meanwhile, Kirby had finally reached the wing, and immediately grabbed onto it, grinning a little uneasily. "Eheheh... We're finally here!"

Dagger wasn't paying too much attention to that, though, as he was still trying to dodge the bombs that the Poppy Bro. was still chucking at him. "Yuu jurk!" he spat.

"_NYAAAH!_" the clown replied, making a face and chucking another bomb straight at Dagger's head.

The Blade yelled in terror, holding one paw in front of his face in defense. Somehow he wound up catching the thing, and looked at it, wide-eyed... only to realize that it wasn't lit. "Buuuh?"

"Aha! ...Wait, what?" The Poppy stared at Dagger, dumbfounded, then fought to keep from stomping in rage. "_Agh!_ I forgot to light it! Grrr... I'll get you this time!" With that, he began chucking even more bombs at the Blade Knight. And yet, in his rush, he still forgot to light them.

Mostly to prevent himself from getting hit and knocked off-balance, Dagger began catching the bombs in his tongue.

...Wait, bombs...

Eyes lighting up, the Blade Knight turned around, chucking the bombs at the joint of the wing with all his might. Most of them hit their target, landing between the wing and the ship.

"Nice thinking!" Kirby cheered. "But these aren't lit...! And how're we gonna get away from the ex..." He trailed off, noticing a Waddle Dee and a Burnin' Leo riding a Warpstar.

Dagger noticed it as well, but for a different reason. He pulled his tongue back, then flung it forward, snatching the Burnin' Leo off of the Warpstar.

"Waaaaaaaaah! Hey, man, what're you doing?" Blaze cried. He glared at Dagger a little, but was too terrified out of his mind to do much else.

Dagger didn't answer, instead grabbing Blaze in one paw and pointing him at the bombs piled against the wing joint. He then grabbed one of the Burnin' Leo's feet, forcefully pulling it down like some kind of trigger. This caused him to spew a stream of fire at the bombs, lighting their fuses.

"Buh-huh!" Dagger cheered, setting the stunned Burnin' Leo down beside him. Immediately afterward he started when a Waddle Dee splatted against the wall next to him. "Buh—?"

"Grab hold, Dag'!" Kirby called as he flew beside the Blade Knight on a Warpstar.

Dagger didn't need to be told twice, and grabbed one wing of the Warpstar as Kirby frantically drove it away from the ship. Everyone else who was still there watched the two fly off, then looked over at the wing, where the bombs were about to go off. Horrified, they all began to scramble up to the top deck, desperate to avoid the explosion.

* * *

><p>The cries of the crew members were drowned out by the rumbling of a violent explosion from the left side of the ship. "<em>Aaaaaaagh!<em>" Axe Knight cried, fighting with the steering wheel. "The left wing's been destroyed!" He looked down at some of the displays, reading over them quickly. "Damage to the left wing... approximately 74%!"

Captain Vul squawked in surprise, gripping one of the consoles as the ship rocked violently. "Do something, you morons!"

"We're losing stability!" Mace Knight yelped, fighting a losing battle to not panic.

Sir Meta Knight darted for the controls that Mace was seated by, and began to work at them. "Retract the sails!" he said to the knight, not taking his eyes off of his own work. "Give more lift to the left wing!"

"U-um..." Mace Knight just stood there, frozen, his panic rendering him unable to do his work. Fortunately, Meta Knight was able to balance the ship himself, and slowly the frantic air in the bridge calmed as the ship finally stabilized. Although most of the group was starting to breathe a little easier, there was still a tension that hung over them.

"...Where," asked Vul in a low voice, "is Kirby?"

"Umm..." Axe temporarily switched the ship to autopilot, then turned to scrutinize the monitors. "Lemme see..."

"H-hey!" Mace stammered, still somewhat shaken. "That's my job!"

"Not when you're blankin' out like that!" Axe said, still trying to look over the monitors. "Uhhh... I don't see him."

Mace, a little more than annoyed that Axe was trying to take over his job, knocked him out of the way with the handle of his weapon, then hit a button on the console to change the view of the monitors. "Here's why! He's in the cabin!"

"The cabin? Y'mean he's in the ship?" Sailor Dee stood on the tips of his feet, trying to see the monitors and radar better. "But... but where is that?"

"It looks like... the ducts?" Axe said, looking rather baffled.

"What on Popstar's he doing in the ducts?" Vul snarled, shoving both Axe and Mace away.

"Is he lost?" Sailor Dee asked quietly, tilting his head to one side.

"...Wait a minute..." The bird stepped back, eyes widening. Slowly, a rather wicked smirk crossed his beak. "I think I have an idea... Heheheheh..."

Axe and Mace exchanged looks, not sure they wanted to hear what this plan could be.

* * *

><p>Dagger hung at the entrance to the ducts, looking around the hallway. "Cuh-tuuuur!" he called, cupping his hands around his mouth. "<em>Cuuuuuuh-tuuuuuur!<em>"

"Hurry up!" came Kirby's echoed voice from inside the ducts. "I told you, Cutter's gonna be fine!"

The Blade Knight whimpered a little, casting one last look around the ship before reluctantly crawling into the duct. "Still nofind him...!"

"They got the ship so it won't crash right now," Kirby said as he walked through the tunnel up ahead. "So he'll probably stay here... Maybe we'll run into him later."

Dagger nodded slowly as he continued to crawl, but didn't feel all that comforted. What if Cutter didn't know the ship was crashing, and he stayed on the ship...? The thought made him shudder. "...Sure wefind... Cuh'er?" he asked, voice taking on a slightly higher pitch.

"Yep! Don't worry about it."

The Blade Knight sighed a little, and just tried to focus on where he was going. In the ducts, it was hard to see, and hard to crawl around, but at least they weren't running into any of the _Halberd_ crew members this way...

Suddenly, the two began to hear muffled voices talking, and froze. They stayed like that for a moment, wondering where the voices were coming from, but soon Kirby relaxed. "They're in a room under here," Kirby whispered. "Stay quiet..." With that, he kept walking.

Dagger nodded silently and followed. He noticed a bit of light up ahead, and soon found that it was a vent. Below, he could see a room where some crew members were resting and talking. He looked around the room as much as he could from where he was in the duct, wondering if Cutter was there, but he didn't see his friend. Sighing a little, he continued crawling.

The two would pass over vents like that every so often, and each time, Dagger would look in, hoping that he would find Cutter there. And, each time, he was disappointed. He was about to give up hope of spotting his friend this way when something caught his eye.

Through the vent he was now over, he could see the glint of some armor.

At first, he thought it might be a Sir Kibble's armor, but he was mistaken. It looked like there was a bunch of armor and weapons for various species in that room... What was that for? "Kirby, luuk!" he called.

"Huh?" Kirby turned around and approached Dagger. He looked through the vent, blinking. "What is it...? Woah!" Immediately he grinned. "That's the armory! Great find, Dagger! Let's take a look!"

Dagger smiled, glad that he was able to help with something. He crawled a little past the vent, then kicked it open, and dropped down. Kirby landed with a squeak beside him as he stood up. "Buh...?"

All around there were piles of armor and weapons, separated into different sections according to species. Dagger soon spotted the section for Blade Knight armor, and wandered over in order to exchange his old pair of shoulder guards for a newer pair.

"Hmm... Wonder if I should get an ability now..." Kirby wondered out loud as he looked around the weapons. "Wha'd'you think, Dagger?"

"Iunno," the Blade Knight replied, glancing around as he put on the new pair of shoulder guards. Something was odd about this room... Why didn't it have any Sir Kibble armor? He frowned a little, but wasn't sure what that could possibly mean... Maybe he would find out later.

"Hrm... That cheap Warpstar exploded when we got back, so we don't have a way of getting outta here fast if we wanna blow up the right wing... So I don't think I want a Bomb ability," Kirby said to no-one in particular. He thought about it for a while, then shrugged. "Guess we'll have to take out the right wing some other way. C'mon, Dagger, let's go." With that, the pink puffball hopped back up into the vent.

"...'Kay." Dagger cast one last glance around the room before following.

* * *

><p>"My first AI... and it t-tries to kill me. Why'd you d-do that, huh? Maybe I should've made you to r-respect your creators... But I guess that won't matter much, n-now."<p>

Cutter glanced up at the dead eyes of Heavy Lobster, half-expecting it to respond. When the mechanical crustacean didn't acknowledge him, he went back to his work, using a wrench to screw one of the bolts on the robot's claw.

"A-at least you didn't try to fry me with this th-thing," Cutter said, shuddering a little at the thought. "B-but if all goes well... you won't try to fry anyone a-again..." He pulled the wrench away. "Will you?"

Much to the Sir Kibble's horror, there was a mechanical hum as the lobster's eyes suddenly lit up bright red. He screamed, grabbing his crutches and limping away frantically.

Heavy Lobster's eyes dimmed to their normal green shade, and with a few mechanical whirs it stood up. Its optics rotated a little as it gazed around the room before it began to stomp away through a large door, which automatically opened as it approached.

"...O-oh," Cutter said quietly as his stomach sank a little. "Th-that's... that then, isn't it?" Slowly he slid into a seated position, feeling a little sick. "I hope this works..." he muttered, blinking as he thought back to a point earlier on in Heavy Lobster's construction.

"_So... n-no abilities, huh?" _

"_Nah, no abilities."_

"_...W-well I don't see why not... I mean, wouldn't he be stronger this way?"_

"_Vul told us we needed to 'ability-proof' him."_

"_Yeah, I guess to keep the TACs out... Can't they like, shapeshift or something if they get an ability?"_

"_I thought Scopes disproved that."_

"_Oh come on, you can't trust that website for everything."_

"_...W-well, whatever... no abilities, then."_

No, no abilities... and now Cutter knew why. It wasn't because of the TACs... it was because of Kirby. He'd had a paw in building a robot designed to fight Kirby... and win.

* * *

><p>"Almost there...?" Dagger asked as he finally managed to pull himself back up into the duct.<p>

"Yeah... I think so," Kirby said with a nod. "We should be getting close to the right—" Suddenly he froze. "...Did you hear that?"

"Buh?" Dagger looked around, not sure what Kirby was getting at. He could hardly see anything in these ducts, let alone hear—

_Clank, clank._

Slowly the two exchanged glances. "...What's that?"

Dagger was not bright, but he'd been around Cutter long enough to be able to detect fear pretty easily... and Kirby was scared. Suddenly he felt very sick, and cautiously looked behind himself.

There was a clanking, grinding, mechanical noise coming from the depths of the ship, and it was gradually getting closer. While it had been pitch-black in the ducts before, aside from the occasional light... the end of the tunnel was slowly being filled with a sinister red glow.

"...Dagger..." Kirby whispered, "_Keep. Moving_."

* * *

><p>"You have <em>completely<em> lost your mind, Captain!" Mace Knight wailed, recoiling from the monitors in horror.

The bird just cackled, leaning in close to one of the screens. "It's too late to turn back now!"

Mace was going to protest, but he knew it would be useless. "I just know we're gonna regret this..." he whined, slumping.

"Oh, shut it!" Vul shot a glare at his subordinate. "This is the only chance we have to finish Kirby!" He turned back to look at the screens, maniacal grin returning. "This time we'll succeed! Heavy Lobster, _awaaaaaay!_ Crush him! _Crush him!_"

Axe Knight, still at the wheel, shuddered, tears starting to leak from his skull mask. "Our ship is falling apart...!" he whimpered.

"Don't worry about it!" came Vul's far-too-jovial voice. "Just press on!"

"Sir Meta Knight!" Sailor Dee squeaked, turning to his superior with wide eyes. "What do we do...?"

But Sir Meta Knight did not respond. The Waddle Dee watched, noticing that the knight's gaze was darting between Captain Vul and the monitors. His eyes were narrowed slightly.

Sailor Dee swallowed, backing away and turning to face the screens once more.

* * *

><p><em>It had only been a suggestion. He hadn't expected such a negative reaction.<em>

"KIRBY!" Dagger screamed as he scrambled through the narrow tunnel. The clanking and grinding had turned into an all-out mechanical _roar._

"_What are you, an idiot? We can't use that!"_

"Just a little farther, Dagger!" Kirby called, darting up ahead. There was a vent above him, and he tried to pry it open, but to no avail. "Help me!"

"_Wh-what...? Why?"_

Dagger fought with all his might to crawl through the ducts even faster, and finally made it up to Kirby. "I gotit...!" He slid underneath the vent, rolled onto his back, and kicked it open.

"_That's an ability!"_

Frantically the two climbed up through the vent, and found themselves in an open area. "We're free!" Kirby cheered, hopping onto the floor... only to gasp. What he'd thought to be a normal room in _Halberd_ had no exits, other than the vent from which he'd entered. "No...!"

"_It is?"_

Dagger looked around the room, nearly panicking when he saw that they were trapped. Suddenly he spun around when the floor began to shake, and something began to claw its way through the sheer metal of the ship's innards.

"_Yeah, a dangerous one! You didn't know that?"_

With a horrible screech, one very banged-up Heavy Lobster emerged from the floor, immediately cornering Kirby and Dagger in the cramped room.

"_You're… you're joking... A-aren't you?"_

"I knew I should've gotten an ability...!" Kirby said, flinching as the mechanical lobster opened its claws wide. But the claws began to screech and grind and shudder, as though they were trying to force something out...

"_Nope... Even though it's just a cosmetic change… if something got that ability..."_

"Wh-what it—" Dagger started, only to yelp and step back as a dried clump shot out of Heavy Lobster's claws, followed by a spurt of red paint.

"_...we'd be doomed."_

* * *

><p>"WHAT? <em>WHAT? <em>WHAT THE HECK IS THIS?" Captain Vul screeched, pounding on the consoles in sheer rage.

Axe wiped the tears from his mask, attempting a slight joke. "Maybe you busted Heavy Lobster from drivin' it through the ship…" Suddenly he yelped and ducked when the bird fired a shot at him.

"No...!"

Everyone turned to Sir Meta Knight, who had stepped forward. His eyes were wide beneath his mask as he stared at the screen. "It _can't_ be...!"

* * *

><p>"...HAHA! <em>YES!<em>" Kirby cheered, opening his mouth wide to inhale something.

"Buh?" Dagger exclaimed, watching his friend in confusion. What was he so happy about...?

Kirby sucked up the clump of dried paint, and in a flash, he donned a baseball cap, a bucket, and a paintbrush. "Try this, Heavy Lobster!" With that, he dunked the paintbrush into the bucket and quickly swiped it out.

By the magic of Paint Kirby's ability, the paint from the brush seemed to know exactly where to strike, hitting Heavy Lobster right in the face. The massive robot whirred and reeled back, for its optics were now coated in paint.

Kirby had already lost his ability, but he didn't need it now. "Dagger, lead it that way!" he called, pointing to one end of the room.

Dagger had no idea what Kirby had planned, but nodded anyway. "Um... 'kay!" he said, unable to hide the fearful squeak in his voice. He darted over in the direction Kirby had instructed, and began making faces at Heavy Lobster. "Hey, yuu!" he called. "Yuu jurk!"

Heavy Lobster spun around, and darted over toward Dagger, clawing at the air blindly.

The Blade Knight yelped, darting away as the robot slammed into the wall with a loud _bang!_ He flinched, preparing for it to turn around and attack him again... but instead, Heavy Lobster began plowing through the wall, attacking it with its claws.

Kirby laughed triumphantly. "It can't see where we are, so it's just attacking whatever makes the most noise!" he cheered. "Now c'mon, let's get outta here!" With that, he leaped back into the ducts, Dagger following.

Moments after they fled into the ducts, a violent explosion rang out from the tunnel Heavy Lobster had plowed through the side of the ship.

The robot had been destroyed… and so had the right wing.


	6. Reactor

My apologies for uploading this chapter so late today. I meant to do it this morning, but the internet at this place I'm currently living at this summer is... a little bit screwy. In any case, I hope you enjoy!

On with the fic!

* * *

><p>The bridge of the <em>Halberd<em> was quiet. Everyone was at different parts of the room, having just finished fighting with the controls to stabilize the ship. Sure enough, it was stabilized, but the tension in the air was almost tangible.

Mace Knight hung over the controls, trembling. "Heavy Lobster... took out the right wing..." he said shakily, twitching a little.

"S-so, um..." Axe Knight tried to stay focused on steering the ship, and was subconsciously steering it a bit closer to land. "That means both wings are gone, right?"

"OF _COURSE_ IT MEANS BOTH WINGS ARE GONE, YOU _IDIOT!_" Mace shouted, spinning around and preparing to slug his companion. Fortunately, Sir Meta Knight grabbed one of his arms, holding him back. "...Sir," he said, voice quickly quieting to a whimper as his rage drained, "Kirby is completely destroying our ship..."

Meta Knight remained silent, but let go.

"Hmmm..." Captain Vul stood back, rubbing his beak with two feather-fingers. "Having both wings destroyed may be just what we needed..."

"...I think we've found someone who's a bigger idiot than Axe," Mace mumbled. He gave a yelp with Captain Vul suddenly grabbed the back of his shirt and hoisted him up to eye-level.

"_Who's_ an idiot?"

"Uh, yeah, actually that _is_ kinda a really dumb thing to say," Axe said, only to duck as Mace suddenly came flying at him.

"...Maybe we should fight Kirby instead of fighting with each other," Sailor Dee remarked quietly.

"_That_ is a good idea," Sir Meta Knight said. "What is Kirby doing now?"

Axe shoved Mace off of himself, and stole a quick glance toward the monitors. "I think he's headed for the helm..."

Mace slowly dragged himself back to his usual post, rubbing his head as he tried to calm down. "I-I wonder what he's gonna try to do next..."

"Whatever it may be, he must not be allowed to accomplish it." Sir Meta Knight's eyes flashed. "Send _everyone_ after him!"

* * *

><p>"Okay Dagger, we did this before, and we can do it again, right?" Kirby said as he made his way around the base of the ship. "Just focus, and don't lose your footing."<p>

Focusing was not something Dagger was particularly good at, though, especially not in their current situation. He couldn't help but think about Cutter... Why hadn't they found him yet? They'd gotten out of the ducts, crossed the deck, and were now making their way around the ship, and yet through all that, they still hadn't found him...

Maybe... had Cutter been sent flying off of the ship, like he had? What if he was out there in that forest, and he'd gotten hurt? Or what if he wasn't in the forest at all... What if he'd fallen into the ocean?

Dagger's partially-melted boot slipped a little, immediately snapping him out of his thoughts. He practically threw himself into the side of the ship, glancing wide-eyed at the ocean below.

"Don't fall!" Kirby shouted, still making is way forward. "We're still not there yet!"

Dagger gulped, following his friend. He couldn't help but look back, though, muttering, "Cuh'er... where yuu...?"

* * *

><p>"No-one's following them?" Sailor Dee asked as he watched the monitors. Sure enough, Kirby and Dagger were crawling along the base of the ship, unopposed.<p>

"Those insubordinate...!" Captain Vul grinded his teeth as he watched. "I can't believe they're wussing out like this!"

"I am not surprised," Sir Meta Knight said quietly. "We lost a number of crew members when they tried to stop Kirby from attacking the left wing... but they must fight back once he gets back into the ship."

"...Why don't you guys fight back?" Vul asked, glancing at Axe and Mace. "I'm sure you could do something, even though the wind is strong..."

"And it's cold," Sailor Dee added with a nod.

"...And it's high," Axe said.

"And it's scary...!" Mace whimpered, shuddering.

Captain Vul slapped his wing against his face. "All right, you lot."

* * *

><p>"Here! Right here, Dagger!" Kirby shouted over the wind.<p>

The Blade Knight looked up, seeing the pink puffball standing by some door. "Buh...?"

"We're heading back into the ship!" he called. "This way!"

Dagger heaved a sigh of relief, quickly clearing the distance between himself and the door and stepping inside after Kirby.

It was dark in there, and the two stood in confusion for a while. "Huh..." Kirby remarked, putting his paw to his mouth. "Wonder where the lights went."

"Here," came an unfamiliar voice. "Allow _me!_"

_Click._

In an instant the lights flickered on, and Kirby and Dagger found themselves in a room completely surrounded by what looked like every single goon on the _Halberd_.

"...Buh-oh," Dagger said with a wince, right before being jumped on by a number of goons.

"_AAAGH!_" Kirby cried. "Did they send _everyone_ after us?"

"Iunno!" Dagger exclaimed, trying to knock a stubborn Birdon off of his head. Instead of flying off, though, she pecked him in the eye. "OW!" Finally he managed to get the bird away, only to be jumped by several more crew members. "Buuuuuh...!"

Kirby, also getting ganged up on, reacted by opening his mouth and inhaling a few Dreamlanders. He then spat them out, knocking them into their comrades. "Haha, I did it!" he cheered, and started to make his way through the path he'd cleared... only for several more _Halberd_ crew members to get in the way. "Are you kidding me?"

Dagger, meanwhile, had managed to get closer to Kirby. "Whatwe do...?" he whimpered, ducking as a GIM swung its yo-yo at him.

"If only I had the right ability...!" Kirby muttered. Suddenly his eyes lit up, and he turned around. "...Hey Dagger?"

The Blade Knight turned to face his friend. "Buh?"

A few minutes later, Sword Kirby stood triumphantly over a pile of defeated goons. "Hah! That was easy." Giggling a little, he hopped down and walked out of the room, heading down a hallway.

After a few moments, though, he stopped, blinking a few times. "...Oh, yeah, almost forgot." He opened his mouth.

Moments later, Dagger was at the other side of the hallway, having fled there at a speed that rivaled Cutter's. He stood backed up against the wall, staring at Kirby with a look of absolute terror.

"Eheh, guess I should've warned you first, huh?" Kirby asked, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

Dagger nodded his head frantically.

"Well, sorry... I didn't mean to scare you like that, honest! I won't do it again..." He walked down the hallway, laughing a little when Dagger put his arms up in defense when he walked by. "I mean it, Dagger! I'm not gonna eat you, I promise!"

Dagger flinched a little, reluctantly following his friend.

"...Though actually..." Kirby slowly turned around, mouth open wide. "Aaaaaaah..."

"_BUUUUUH!_" Dagger shrieked, taking off down the hallway and far away from Kirby.

"I'm kidding!" Kirby called out between giggles. "I'm only kidding, Da—" He paused, standing completely still. "Hey, do you smell that?"

Now a fair distance away, Dagger screeched to a halt, blinking. "Buh...?"

"That... that smell..." Kirby tilted his head upward, sniffing with his non-existent nose. "It smells like...!" Without warning, he took off running, charging past Dagger and turning down another passage.

"...Hey! W-wait!" Dagger called, chasing after his friend. Now what was he up to...?

* * *

><p>"U-um..." Mace Knight watched the screens nervously, starting to sweat a little. "I w-wonder where they're going..."<p>

"I dunno! Doesn't look like it leads anywhere important." Axe tilted his head to one side. "Does it?"

"No, there's just some old storage rooms down that way," Captain Vul remarked, crossing his wings. "We didn't even use most of those. What's he up to?"

Mace gripped the edge of the console, eyes widening when he saw Kirby burst into a certain room. "_NOOO!_" he blurted out in horror, jumping up from his seat. "MY HIDDEN TOMATOES!" And immediately he covered up his face guard, where it covered his mouth.

"You idiot!" Vul squawked, knocking Mace in the head. "You hid those?"

"Why in the name of Popstar would you hide _tomatoes_, Mace?" Axe asked, giving his companion a funny look. "What kinda dumb idea was _that?_"

"They look delicious..." Sailor Dee murmured as he looked at the screen. "You don't think there's Maxim Tomatoes there, d'you?"

"Don't jinx it!"

* * *

><p>"<em>OMNOMNOMONOMNOMNOM!<em>"

Dagger just sat back, watching as Kirby rapidly shoved tomatoes into his mouth. The room they'd found had crates full of them, so they were likely going to be here for a while... The Blade Knight tapped his boot against the ground, wondering how long this would take. He didn't want to sit around here... He wanted to find Cutter!

Whining a little, Dagger looked around the room impatiently... when something caught his eye. On a shelf was a single, large tomato, all by itself, bearing a rather distinctive marking. The Blade Knight's eyes widened, and he rushed up to it, quickly snatching it up. His eyes lit up, and a wide smile crossed his face as he pocketed the fruit. Maybe coming to this room wasn't such a waste of time after all...

"Mmmmm..." Kirby licked his lips. "Now _that_ was a feast!"

Dagger looked back, and started when he saw several overturned crates and not a tomato in sight. "Yuueat _all_..._?_"

"Yup," Kirby replied, wiping some tomato juice off of his mouth. "Now let's keep going."

* * *

><p>"My tomatoes..." Mace sobbed. He lay curled up on the floor, tears leaking out from beneath his goggles.<p>

Captain Vul was massaging his forehead with a wing, while Axe glanced away from the wheel for a moment to give Mace a sympathetic look. "Cheer up. You can get some tomatoes after we finish taking over Dreamlander!"

For some reason, that seemed to make the knight cry harder.

"Um..." Axe blinked, turning to look at the monitors. "Let's see what Kirby's doin'!"

Sir Meta Knight's eyes flashed. "The path he's taking..."

"..._Eeeeeagh!_" Axe shrieked, eyes wide. "He's headed for the reactor!"

"It's all over...!" Mace sobbed.

"Hmph! Kirby can't do anything to the reactor," Captain Vul said, a smug grin crossing his beak. "We're still safe."

Sailor Dee's eyes widened a little as he spoke up. "But what if Kirby exploits that one weak—"

"Shut up!" Vul shot a glare at the Waddle Dee. "Don't even _say_ things like that!"

* * *

><p>"...So now, all we have to do is destroy the reactor."<p>

Dagger blinked tiredly as he trudged along. He could hardly understand some of the stuff Kirby talked about, and all this running about was really wearing him down. "Why... dothat?" he asked idly.

"Simple!" Kirby grinned. "Once the reactor's gone, the ship will start to crash, and there's no way they can make it keep going!" He kept walking, but it took him a moment to realize that he couldn't hear the sound of boots stomping after him. "...Dagger?"

"No."

Kirby blinked, slowly turning around. Dagger had stopped following, and was standing firm in the middle of the hallway. "'No...?' But... but this is the last thing we have to do!"

"_No!_" Dagger repeated, shaking his head. "No makeship... crash! _No!_ Wenot... find Cuh'er!"

"...I know..." the puffball said slowly. "But we_ will_ find him. I promise."

"_No!_" The Blade Knight stomped his foot, now on the verge of tears. "Not find... 'cuz... _yuu_not luuk!"

"I..." Kirby blinked. "Dagger, I _have_ been looking! We just haven't been to every part of the ship yet... And we can't get to every part of the ship! We don't have time!"

"I_not_ helpyuu!" Dagger shouted, turning around and crossing his arms.

"Remember what I said before, Dagger? What's it that Cutter always says?"

"...Heno... wanna die..."

"So if the ship's crashing, he's gonna escape. Everyone's gonna escape, unless they're crazy!" Kirby took a deep breath. "So if we don't find him on the ship, we'll find 'im when we escape the ship. Okay?"

Dagger remained still, and swallowed. He hated the fact that they weren't going to directly search for Cutter, but... what Kirby said was right. Cutter would always run away from danger, so that's what he would do here. "...Isorry," he said quietly, sniffling. He turned around, wiping the tears from his face. "Ihelp yuu..."

Kirby sighed in relief. "Great! Thanks, Dagger..." He patted the Blade Knight on the back when Dagger approached him, and turned around. "We're almost there."

Sure enough, it wasn't long before they reached the reactor. The two found themselves in a strange room, where they faced a giant crystal suspended between two parts of a machine. On the walls on either side of them appeared to be strange gears, though it was difficult to make out in the dark.

"Here we go..." Kirby whispered, approaching the reactor.

Dagger, instead of following, continued staring at the walls, giving them a funny look. Something was weird about those gears... He had to inspect them more closely! Nodding, he approached one of the walls, and gasped.

The things he and Kirby had mistaken for gears were actually Wheelies! They were trapped in individual tiny rooms with a thick—but see-through—wall on one side. The floors were actually treadmills, so the Wheelie was constantly moving. These Wheelies were all different shapes and sizes, but they had one thing in common: they were all very, very tired.

Dagger watched them for a while, thinking, then perked up. These were the Wheelies he'd had to get onto the ship earlier! Were they helping the ship somehow?

It wasn't long before he noticed a certain small Wheelie... the one that had knocked him off of the Wheelie he'd been riding a while back. Stupid Wheelie! He glared a little, making a face at it.

The Blade Knight's mockery didn't go unnoticed. The little Wheelie turned toward him, backed up as much as its tiny room would allow, and charged forward, ramming into the window.

"Buh!" Dagger jumped back in surprise, eyes wide when he noticed a tiny crack in the glass. It was breaking stuff! Now a little angrier, Dagger pulled another face.

And, once again, the little Wheelie rammed into the glass, making the crack bigger. This went on for a while before the Wheelie burst through the glass, landing on the floor outside of its prison.

The other Wheelies immediately stopped, peering out at their freed comrade. Seeing that, they all began to ram into the windows of their own cages, starting to form cracks in the glass.

Dagger, realizing what the possible result of this would be, darted away from the cages and backed up against the wall. As he did so, he remembered why he'd come to this room in the first place, and turned to look at the reactor. Kirby was standing in front of it, but, oddly enough, was facing away from it. Instead, he seemed to be focusing on some sort of weapon that was hanging from the ceiling...

"_Kirby!_" Dagger cried when the weapon suddenly fired a laser at his friend. But Kirby rolled out of the way, causing the laser to hit the reactor's core.

There was a horrible rumbling noise as the reactor began to spark and shake. The Wheelies quickly noticed this, and started to panic and ram into the windows of their cages even harder, busting through soon afterward. The room was full of the sound of tires screeching and squealing as the Wheelies drove out of the room in a frenzy.

"Dagger, grab one!" Kirby called over the chaos, and Dagger responded by snatching the handlebar of the Wheelie that was closest to him.

"Buh?" He looked down at the wheel creature, and groaned when he realized it was that same small Wheelie that had been making fun of him.

"Get on it, Dagger, hurry!" Kirby cried, rushing up to the Wheelie. The Blade Knight obeyed, and Kirby quickly jumped onto his head. "The reactor's gonna explode!"

The Wheelie, hearing that, gave a screech and followed its larger brethren, carrying Kirby and Dagger off to another part of the ship.

* * *

><p>A terrible explosion rang out within the depths of the <em>Halberd<em>, causing the whole ship to shake. And it didn't stop—no amount of counterbalancing would save the ship this time. Very soon, the gigantic warship began to plummet from the sky, and every person onboard felt it.

That included a certain Sir Kibble that stood, alone, in a room on the _Halberd._ "Th-that was the reactor…" he said, feeling his heart rate quicken to an alarming pace. "H-he did it… K-Kirby did it…!"

And, slowly, Cutter limped out of the room.


	7. Sir Meta Knight

Another Thursday, another new chapter. Enjoy!

On with the fic!

* * *

><p>Alarms were blaring. Red lights were flashing everywhere. But the most terrifying thing to the crew was the readouts they were getting.<p>

"All systems are failing!" Axe Knight cried, tears leaking out of his mask. "Engines number three and five are gone...!"

"We're junked!" Mace sobbed. His head was lying on the console, which his tears were soaking. "There's nothin' left to do but crash!"

"Th-this can't be...!" Captain Vul stammered, holding his head in both his wings. "My ship...! It can't be crashing! This can't be happening!"

"The _Halberd_ is indeed crashing," Sir Meta Knight said. His expression was unreadable. "We have failed."

"No! No, we can't fail!" Vul squawked, rushing over to the console and fighting with the controls. "There has to be something else...!"

"B-but the reactor's been destroyed, and our Wheelie power source escaped!" Axe pointed out, scrubbing some of the tears off of his mask.

"There's no power left...!" Mace whimpered.

Sailor Dee looked at all the hopeless expressions in the room, and spun around to face his superior. "Sir, what do we do...?"

"There's nothing else we can do," Sir Meta Knight said as he reached for a microphone. He switched it on, calling to the crew through the loudspeakers. "Attention to all crew! Evacuate the ship immediately!"

"E... vacuate...?" Captain Vul murmured, eyes widening. "Evacuate... the ship...?" A tremor began to rise up through his body. "Th-the ship... really is going down..." Suddenly he took on a terrified expression, looking frantically around the bridge. "Well, what are all you lunatics just sitting around here for? I'm not staying, I'm evacuating!" And, with that, he charged out of the room, leaving the door to the bridge open behind him.

"...Now..." said Sir Meta Knight, slowly turning to face Axe and Mace, "...It's your turn to evacuate."

"_No!_" Axe spun around, tears still leaking from his mask. "I want to stay with you, Sir...!"

"Y-yeah!" Mace added, standing up, though tears still dripped from his goggles. "Let's try one more time to get Kirby!"

Before Sir Meta Knight could respond, Trident Knight and Lance Knight charged through the open door, standing and hovering respectively between Axe and Mace. "We're your knights until the bitter end!" Trident said, kneeling as best as a puffball could.

"**We will not leave.**" Even Lance's droning sounded sincere.

Finally, Sailor Dee carefully approached his superior, and hugged him.

Sir Meta Knight was silent for a moment as he stared at his crew. None of them wavered; none of them wanted to escape, instead preferring to risk their lives just to help their leader. "It's dangerous... but it's worth a try," he said, and his eyes glowed warmly beneath his mask. "Thank you, guys."

* * *

><p>"<em>CUH-TUUUUUUUR!<em> CUH-TUUUUUR, WHEREYUUUUUUUU?"

Dagger's voice had become hoarse as he and Kirby rode the Wheelie through the Halberd. Dozens of crew members had passed them, but none had taken notice; all of them were set on evacuating the ship.

"Cutter might be leaving another way!" Kirby shouted over the alarms. "Don't give up hope, Dagger!"

"Cuh-tuuur...!" the Blade Knight called, but he held his throat, which was starting to get sore. But worse than that was the sinking feeling he was getting in his gut. They hadn't found Cutter, and the ship was crashing...

Kirby was about to say something, but was immediately cut off by another voice shouting, "Stop right there!"

The Wheelie they were riding obeyed, screeching to a halt. When it looked ahead, it panicked, bucking Kirby and Dagger off of its saddle and speeding off in another direction.

"Hey, wait!" Kirby exclaimed, turning around to run after the Wheelie.

"Stop, Kirby!"

"You can't go any farther...!"

Kirby turned back, and both he and Dagger started to see the Meta Knights standing a short distance away. All four of them had their weapons readied (though Mace was still looking somewhat teary-eyed).

"Buh...?" Dagger blurted out in surprise, hopping up. "Whyyuu... stopus?"

"We are Sir Meta Knight's soldiers!" Trident shouted, pulling his weapon back to prepare to throw it. "And we will remain loyal to him until the end!"

"S-so even though the ship is crashing... we'll d-do everything we can to stop you!" Mace Knight said, sniffling a little.

Kirby and Dagger exchanged glances, then struck fighting poses. "This'll be a short fight," Kirby said, voice shaking a little. "We don't have time for a long one...!"

"Yah," Dagger agreed. He ducked down, pawing at the ground with one foot, and charged toward the knights, preparing to ram into them.

"Careful, Dag'!"

Quickly the Blade Knight veered to the right as Axe swung his weapon at him, succeeding in knocking off a chunk of his red hair. "Buuuh...!" Dagger whined, shaking his head a little as a few stray hairs flew off. "Yuu jurk!" With that, he swung his tongue at the skull-masked knight, grabbing one of his feet.

"_Yuck! _What the—?" Axe cried, right before Dagger picked him up and tossed him into Lance, knocking the droid out of his hover. The knight got up, and brushed himself off. "Hah, that didn't hurt one bit!"

Dagger cocked an eyebrow, not seeming very daunted.

"Huh?" Axe turned around, noticing that his weapon was embedded in a now-sparking Lance Knight. "...Oops. Uh, Trident, can you fix that?"

But Trident wasn't paying attention. Instead, he launched his own weapon at Kirby, who swiftly dodged. "Come here, you...!"

"No way!" the puffball called, darting away from the knight. He suddenly skidded to a halt, facing Trident. "Come and get me!"

"With pleasure!" Trident fetched his weapon and leaped into the air, activating his jetpack. He flew at Kirby, who, oddly enough, was now focused on inhaling something a bit off to the left. He ignored that, though, instead preparing to stab Kirby with his trident.

...Until something enormous smacked him in the back of the head, instantly knocking him out.

"...U-um..." Mace Knight stammered, still clinging to his weapon. Kirby had used his inhaling powers to cause the knight—and his weapon—to come flying into his companion.

"Two down, two to go!" Kirby cheered.

Dagger, meanwhile, was trying to figure out what to do with Axe, who had retrieved his weapon and was now swinging it at Dagger. "Yuu bad!" he spat, trying to look somewhat intimidating despite the fact that he was now backing away. He couldn't try to grab Axe with his tongue again, because that weapon would chop his tongue off! He looked around frantically, trying to figure out what he could do...

"...Hey!" he exclaimed, suddenly noticing something peculiar about the knight. "Yuuhave... horns?" He held his paws up on the top of his head and spread them out to illustrate.

"Err..." Axe stopped, giving Dagger a funny look. He then glanced up at his helmet, poking at one of the decorative horns on top. "My helmet has horns..."

"Charge?" Dagger asked, once again "pawing" at the ground with his foot and ducking.

The knight blinked as he thought about that for a moment, then grinned. "Hey, I guess I could! Why didn't I think of that?" He lowered his head, pawing at the ground like Dagger.

The two faced each other, preparing to charge. Axe was the first, and he came running at Dagger in an attempt to gore him, like a bull. But once he got close enough, the Blade Knight stood upright and stepped to the side.

Mace Knight, who had been swinging his weapon around in preparation to hit Kirby, spotted something charging at him, and swung his mace at it automatically. It wasn't until he saw a red-and-white armored puffball fly through the air that he realized just whom he'd hit.

"..._AXE!_ YOU IDIOT!" Mace called, throwing his arms up in exasperation. Suddenly he froze, seeing Kirby and Dagger walking toward him.

"You're outnumbered now!" Kirby taunted. "Are you gonna surrender?"

"N-no!" Mace said, holding onto the chain of his weapon threateningly. "I'm a follower of Sir Meta Knight! I-I won't back down!"

"Too bad." Kirby shrugged, then opened his mouth.

"...W-wait, what are you do—_Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaghhh!_ " he shrieked as the puffball inhaled him, weapon and all... and then shrieked again when Kirby spat him out, sending him flying across the ship.

"Yaaay! Wewin!" Dagger cheered, hopping up and down a few times.

"No time to celebrate!" Kirby exclaimed, charging forward. "The ship's still going down, and I don't think we have a lot of time left!"

* * *

><p>"We don't have a lot of time left!" shouted Wade, as he and his friend charged through the ship. Both of them looked worse for wear after what had happened by the left wing, but they were still alive, at least.<p>

"Man, I wish that pink punk hadn't swiped your Warpstar!" Blaze whined, rubbing his forehead as he ran. "We'd be outta here by now...!"

"Speakin' of getting outta here..." Wade slowed down as he saw a short figure limping toward them. "Cutter! What're you doing?"

"Yeah, man," Blaze said, stopping next to his friend. "You're going the wrong way!" He pointed down the hallway, in the direction he'd been running. "That way leads outta the ship! You're going deeper in!"

Cutter stopped limping for a moment, lifting himself up on his crutches a little and looking up at his co-workers. His gaze was steady, but his voice was a little shaky. "...I-I know."

Wade and Blaze looked at each other before slowly turning to look back at the Sir Kibble. "Well... all right." Blaze began to walk past Cutter, shaking him a little on his shoulder guard as he did so. "Been nice knowin' ya."

"Um, yeah, been nice knowing ya," Wade repeated, following his friend. "C'mon, let's get outta here!"

Cutter turned a little to watch the two run off before continuing deeper into the ship. "...I-I hope I haven't missed him," he muttered under his breath.

It wasn't long before he heard footsteps pounding down the hallway up ahead, and he straightened himself up as much as possible, looking forward. There, Captain Vul was charging in the same direction that Blaze and Wade had been going—toward the deck. The massive bird ignored the Sir Kibble, running past him as though he weren't there.

_No, you're not getting away...!_ Cutter shut his eyes before shouting as loud as he could, "V-_VUL!_"

_That_ got the bird's attention. Vul screeched to a halt and turned around, glaring. "What do _you_ want, you insubordinate _runt?_"

Cutter turned around, limping toward his former captain. He matched Vul's glare with one of his own, pushing himself up on his crutches as high as he could. "I-I wanted you to pay, you m-_murderer!_"

Vul simply cocked a bushy eyebrow at that, seeming unimpressed. "Sorry, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Th-the Blade Knight you knocked... o-off of the ship!" Cutter shouted, staring to tremble.

"Oh. Huh." The bird shrugged his wings. "I'd forgotten about that."

That sent a bolt of fury through the Sir Kibble. "Forgotten...? Y-you'd... _forgotten?_" His voice began to rise in pitch. "Th-that... th-that Blade Knight was... m-my _friend!_ A-and _you_ killed him!"

"I don't care about your friend, and I don't care about _you!_" Suddenly he lifted his foot and punted Cutter into the wall. "Now get out of my way, you tin can!" With that, he continued toward the deck.

Cutter was not done, and pushed himself up onto his paws, shouting, "S-SO I GOT MY REVENGE ON YOU!"

Vul stopped, and slowly turned around to face his former subordinate. "What...?"

"...And I want you to know it," Cutter said, voice starting to break. He grabbed his crutches again and pushed himself up. "The one... who sabotaged H-Heavy Lobster... was _me._"

The giant bird jerked back in surprise. "_You?_" he screeched, suddenly donning a fierce glare. "I'll kill you!" He reached into his coat, retrieving his revolver and pointing it at the Sir Kibble.

Cutter, seeing the weapon, flinched a little... but his fear was gone. Slowly he relaxed, shutting his eyes.

_Click._

He opened them again, looking up to see a very stunned Captain Vul. The bird's eyes grew wide as he pulled the trigger a few more times, but each time it resulted in the same faint _click_.

"No...!" Vul frantically dug through his coat pockets, looking for any extra bullets.

Cutter swayed a little. _He's... out of bullets...? Then what...?_ Unsure of what exactly he was trying to do, he reached up, detached his boomerang-blade from his helmet, and tried to aim it at Vul.

The former captain yelped, and took off running in the direction he'd been going before.

Cutter stared as Vul rushed away, and began to sway a little more before collapsing, his armor making a noisy clatter as he did so. "N-now what'm I s-supposed to do...?" he cried, holding his head in his paws. He heard footsteps pounding down the hallway once more, and glanced up.

Suddenly he froze, the blood draining from his face.

Even though his vision was blurred by tears, he could make out a very familiar form—one that he couldn't possibly mistake for anyone else. He rubbed his eyes, wondering if he was seeing things. Was this real…? There was only one way to find out…

"D...Dagger?"

The Blade Knight immediately screeched to a halt, and slowly turned around. And, without warning, he charged forward and pounced at Cutter, sending both of them sailing into a wall.

"What the—?" Kirby exclaimed, spinning around. He looked just in time to see a pair of crutches spinning in the air for a moment before clattering to the ground. Beyond them, Dagger was hugging a silver-armored Sir Kibble. Kirby was confused for a moment, then smiled. "Wha'd I tell you, Dagger?"

"YUU _'KAY!_" Dagger sobbed, hugging Cutter tightly. Despite his tears, he had a huge smile on his face. "YUU 'LIVE!"

Cutter hugged back, smiling through his tears as well. "I th-thought you were... th-that you'd...!"

"Umm... I don't wanna interrupt this," Kirby said, looking uneasily back down the hallway, "but we've really gotta hurry!"

"R-right!" Cutter said with a gulp. "I-I don't want to d-die..."

Dagger thought he heard Cutter whisper something else after that, but it was hard to tell. In any case, he agreed with his friend, and set him on his head. "Let'sgo!"

"Th-this way leads t-to the deck." Cutter pointed down the hallway, opposite of where he'd been going earlier. Dagger was about to head that way, when Kirby stopped him.

"No! Not yet! There's still one more thing left to do!"

"Buuuh?" Dagger exclaimed. "But... shipcrash!"

"I know," Kirby said, voice full of worry. "But if we don't take care of this now... this's gonna happen all over again."

Cutter and Dagger exchanged confused glances, but the former slowly understood. "...Oh."

* * *

><p>Kirby stood in front of a door, gazing steadily at it. Neither Cutter nor Dagger had seen him this nervous... Cutter was nervous too, though; he recognized the door. "Th-this... this leads to the b-bridge."<p>

"Yeah," Kirby said, placing one paw against the door. "Meta Knight's waitin' for me here." He turned around to face his helpers. "C'mon."

Dagger, however, did not budge. "...Can't," he said, hanging his head. Cutter fought to keep from falling off. "Nowanna... fighthim."

"I-I'm with Dagger," Cutter said with a wince. "A-and it's not just 'cuz of my broken foot. ...S-sorry Kirby."

Kirby frowned, but nodded. "...Okay. Wait for me, then, and get ready to run when I come out!" With that, he opened the door and stepped inside, shutting the door behind him.

"...He be... 'kay?" Dagger asked, glancing up at Cutter.

"Which one?"

The two remained silent for a moment, and started when they heard the sound of clashing swords. Cutter tried to face away from the door and keep his focus off of the battle on the other side of it. "I'm sorry, Dag'," he said quietly.

"Buh?"

"I sh-should've been paying more attention t-to you..." He swallowed. "I felt s-so horrible when I realized th-that I'd been fighting w-with you, and th-that was the last thing we did before..."

"I too!" Dagger exclaimed, drooping a little. "Feltbad..."

They flinched upon hearing a cry that sounded like Kirby's.

"...H-how did you s-survive?"

"Bruth'r... catchme!" Dagger tried to smile a little. "Yuu?"

"H-Heavy Lobster's c-claw... p-pinned me to the sh—"

An angry yell from Sir Meta Knight immediately sent a bolt of terror through them. It took a little while for either of them to move, let alone speak.

"...W-will he be okay?" Cutter asked, voice taking on a higher pitch.

Before Dagger could try to answer that, the door burst open, and Sword Kirby charged out of the room. "NOW WE CAN LEAVE!" he yelled, not even stopping to wait for his friends.

"He 'kay!" Dagger shouted to Cutter as he took off running.

Cutter, however, couldn't help but glance back at the open door behind them.

* * *

><p>"<em>Lord Meta Knight! Please take care!"<em>

"_We'll go on ahead...!"_

At first, he'd thought they had just given up and abandoned him. That's what it seemed like, anyway... But _he_ wasn't going to give up! He would stay right by his side, no matter what!

But now... now he understood why they'd left.

To see Sir Meta Knight exhibit signs of anger was enough to strike a bolt of fear through anyone's heart.

To see him in an unbridled rage was _terrifying._

Sailor Dee remained curled up in a corner, too scared to even look at his superior. He'd stayed so calm throughout Kirby's attack, even after the reactor had been destroyed... but after that fight...

The Waddle Dee risked pulling one of his paws away from his face, and glanced around the room. Though it was now dark in the bridge, he immediately caught sight of two halves of a mask lying on the floor.

He'd never seen his superior without that mask… and he never wanted to. A dark form darted across the bridge, and he covered his face again.

"S-sir...?" he squeaked, shivering.

Meta Knight did not acknowledge the question. "_Where is it?_" he snarled, and Sailor Dee heard him tear open something metal with his sword.

"S-sir, we have to leave...!"

There was a faint clicking sound, followed by silence. Sailor Dee rubbed the tears from his face and looked up to see his superior standing with his back to him. "Kirby has humiliated me..." In one swift motion, he threw back his cape, which seemed to explode into a pair of demonic wings.

"..._for the last time!_"

"_SIR!_" Sailor Dee cried, but Sir Meta Knight was gone.

* * *

><p>"Wheelieeeee...!" Dagger called as followed Kirby, looking around.<p>

"Here, Wheelie-Wheelie-Wheeelieeee!" Kirby shouted frantically as he rushed toward the deck.

"K-Kirby... Can Wh-Wheelies fly?"

"No, but if we hitch a ride on one, it might be able to drive off the deck fast enough for us to reach land!"

"_MIGHT?_"

Somehow the three heard a honking noise over the sound of the ship's falling apart, and turned to see a Wheelie darting toward them. Kirby hopped on once it got close enough, and Dagger hopped on behind him. The sentient motorcycle sank a little beneath its passengers' combined weight, but kept going. "Buh..." Dagger reached back, feeling his hair blowing in the wind behind them. It reached out farther than the Wheelie's exhaust pipes, which worried him for some reason, though he couldn't place why.

"Where oth'r… Wheelies?" Dagger asked, looking down at the wheel worriedly.

"I don't think it'd know even if it could answer you," Kirby said. "They're fine though, I'm sure!"

"I-I hope this one'll be f-fine... d-driving off the deck!" Cutter stammered, subconsciously holding onto Dagger's head a little tighter.

The group remained silent after that as the Wheelie drove on. The sound of sirens and grinding metal was all around them, setting a tense atmosphere. But somehow, one small sound seemed to make it worse. That sound grew louder and louder before any of them were able to identify it as something—or some_one_—flying through the air.

Sir Meta Knight flew after them, holding out the sword Galaxia, its sinister prongs gleaming red in the light of the sunset. His mask shone in a similar manner. Two demonic wings carried him through the air, beating frantically. And his eyes, which so rarely gave away his emotions, were narrowed into slits.

"**YOU'LL NEVER ESCAPE!**"

None of them spoke. The Wheelie rushed around twisted pieces of metal, leaped over gaps in the deck, and fought for its very life to stay out of the reach of Sir Meta Knight's sword.

Yet he was getting closer. With every wing-beat he came closer and closer to being able to touch the back of Dagger's hair with the tip of Galaxia. With a few more flaps of his wings and a swipe of his sword, he was able to cut some of it away.

There was a faint screech that was heard over the wind. None of them knew what it was, or if they'd really even heard it... But whatever it was, it made Sir Meta Knight stop, and spin around, flying back into the doomed ship.

Kirby, Cutter, and Dagger all exchanged glances before looking up ahead. The deck was ending.

The Wheelie drove off.

And the _Halberd_ finally hit the water.


	8. Epilogue

Here's the last chapter! I had a lot of fun writing this fic, and I hope you guys had a lot of fun reading it. Thanks for reading, and thanks for reviewing (if you did that)! Remember that constructive criticism is always appreciated.

On with the fic!

* * *

><p>The sun was setting, and the Orange Ocean almost looked red beneath its rays. The water was still rippling madly from where a once-airborne vessel had crashed there. But only two stood at the shore to watch this.<p>

As Cutter and Dagger stared out at the ocean, they found it hard to believe that the attack on the _Halberd_ had not even lasted twenty-four hours. Months and months—maybe even years—of preparation had gone into planning this operation and building the _Halberd_, and yet it had failed so quickly after its launch…

But after what had happened, they were glad it was over.

"Hey guys..." Kirby said quietly as he approached the group. "Thanks for your help."

Dagger smiled faintly, and Cutter nodded, not turning around.

"We're lucky to have made it out of that all right," Kirby asked, indicating the rippling ocean, "huh?"

At that, Cutter flinched, looking down. "...N-not everyone m-made it out all right..."

Kirby thought about that for a moment, and bowed his head. "...Oh, you're right."

"Momma Blade-burd..."

The two nodded sadly.

"...Momma _Blade_-burd!"

Kirby and Cutter looked up in confusion when Dagger suddenly took off running across the beach. When they saw what he was running toward, they both looked at each other in surprise, wondering how they'd missed it.

Lying on the shore was the once-mighty bird, Dynablade. Her beautiful feathers were tarnished with blood and dirt, one wing was bent at the wrong angle, and she was not moving.

Cutter turned away and snapped his visor shut, not wanting to look at his fallen friend. Kirby, meanwhile, watched sadly as Dagger stood by the bird and dug through his pockets. "I don't think there's anything you can do for her..." he said softly.

Dagger was not listening. His eyes lit up, and he yanked a slightly-bruised—but still edible—Maxim Tomato out of his pocket. He held it into the air triumphantly and glanced over his shoulder, giving Kirby and Cutter a bright grin. "Trythis!" he cheered, rushing up to Dynablade's head. Her beak was partially open, and with a bit of work he managed to open it enough to fit the magical fruit in. Narrowing his eyes a bit in concentration, he shoved the tomato down her throat, and pulled his arm back, waiting.

At first, nothing happened, but slowly Dynablade's eyes opened. She carefully stood up, the broken halves of her wing bone cracking back into place as she did so. Looking over at her wing, she tested it, lifting it a little and moving it around. Seeing that it had completely healed, she squawked triumphantly, ducking down and nuzzling Dagger.

"Cutter!" Kirby shouted, turning around and shaking the Sir Kibble's shoulder guard. "Look! Mrs. Dynablade's all right!"

"She is...?" Cutter lifted his visor and turned around, starting when he saw the massive bird standing up straight. "_Dynablade!_"

But before they could say anything else, the bird reached out a wing and carefully brushed Dagger aside before flying up into the air...

* * *

><p><em>What… what happened…?<em>

On another part of the beach, a little Waddle Dee stirred and blinked awake. He sat up slowly, glancing around at the unfamiliar surroundings and wondering why something felt off. Suddenly he reached up to his head, not feeling what he was looking for. "M-my hat…!"

Before he could panic, a sailor cap was handed to him.

"…Oh, thanks!" he said, heaving a sigh of relief and setting the cap on his head. "There… Wait, huh?" Looking to his side, he saw a familiar masked face, and started. "S-Sir!"

Sir Meta Knight watched him carefully. Though he looked mostly calm, Sailor Dee could tell that he seemed rather tired.

"The… The _Halberd…_" The brown puffball looked back out into the Orange Ocean, his heart sinking. "It's gone…"

Meta Knight did not reply.

"Wh-what do we do now, Sir?" Sailor Dee asked, tears starting to sting at the corners of his eyes.

"Be eternally thankful that we are still alive." With that, the old knight turned around and began to walk away from the beach. He stopped after walking a ways, and glanced behind him. "Come along, sailor."

The Waddle Dee squeaked and rushed to follow his superior, but not before glancing back at a certain spot in the ocean one more time.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, someone else was leaving as well. Vul stomped away from the beach, shaking the sand off of his feet as he did so. "Stupid Meta Knight," he grumbled. "Stupid Sir Kibble... I knew I should've killed him when I got the chance! Ugh... If I was the one running that operation, things would have gone much better..."<p>

He shoved his hands in his pockets, and grinned a little. "Well, at least one thing went right... I got to shoot down that stupid turkey."

As soon as he said that, he felt the wind start to pick up. He pulled his wings out of his pockets, using them to shield his face from the wind. But as the wind grew stronger, he had to fight to hold his ground. "What on Popstar...?"

But the wind stopped, and he heard a dull thud somewhere nearby. He was about to shrug it off as odd weather until he heard a threatening caw from behind him.

* * *

><p>"S-so I guess that's it then, huh?"<p>

"Yup, that's it."

"Yuu leave...?"

"Yeah, I need some rest, and I'll bet you guys do, too!"

"Y-yeah..."

"Buh-huh."

"Well, see ya, guys."

"...See ya."

"Bye!" _Slurp!_

"Heheh! Bye, Dagger."

Cutter and Dagger both waved goodbye as Kirby walked over to a parked Wheelie. The sentient motorcycle honked happily as Kirby hopped on, and drove off.

"Wh-what about you, Dagger?" Cutter asked, glancing down from where he sat on the Blade Knight's head. "You ready to go home, too?"

"Yah," Dagger said with a smile. With that, he began to march off in the direction of Green Greens.

"Y'know... I'm s-sorry for fighting with you l-like that earlier..."

"Isorry, too..."

"I'll never fight with you again. H-how's that sound?"

Dagger grinned. "'Kay."

With that, the two friends walked off as the sun finally dipped down beneath the waves of the Orange Ocean.

Suddenly, Cutter's eyes widened. "...Oh _scrap!_"

"Buh?"

"My old armor is still on that ship!"

"…Goget?"

"I… I think I'll pass."


End file.
